BTDTL Volume 9: The Yamato Encounter
by AndrewK9000
Summary: Our heroes take their new Gummy Ship out to the worlds, but end up chasing the Hakonians to the realm of Space Battleship Yamato, while also facing the greatest threat to life in all of existance; The Daleks. Who will survive?
1. Chapter 1: To Name a Gummy Ship

Greetings fellow readers and writers! This is my ninth Kingdom Hearts story and I hope you like it! Okay, this time around we'll be crossing with one of my favorite scifi anime's, Space Battleship Yamato, takes place immediately after Volume 8 of my Beyond the Door to Light series ended, where Sora and the gang are finally going to get their new Gummy Ship. Yet they're about to find out that, as usual, nothing ever goes according to plan. This story also takes place between episodes 14 and 15 of Space Battleship Yamato, as if it were a 'lost episode.' This fic also contains elements of Doctor Who that will appear in the middle of the story. The Doctor won't be making an appearance, sorry, but as a special guest, I'll have The Daleks come in as 3rd party villains. Trust me, you'll love it!

Now I don't own either Kingdom Hearts, Space Battleship Yamato or Doctor Who. I do own the original characters I've created for this series and the original Heartless that I've also creature. Please don't sue me over the stuff I don't own, I'm just trying to tell a good story.

And now, without further delay, please enjoy…

**Kingdom Hearts: Beyond the Door to Light**

**Volume 9: The Yamato Encounter**

**By AndrewK9000**

**Chapter 1: To Name a Gummy Ship**

Sora ran down the stairs to the Gummy Hanger in Disney Castle and was amazed by the new edition to the room. "Wow!" he said.

Just then Kairi, Aiden, Donald and Goofy caught up with Sora and were also amazed by what they saw, "Wow!" they all said.

Then Riku and the newest edition to the team, Tess Thatcher, were also amazed by what they saw. Even Tess, who grew up on a world that was reduced to a pre-renaissance civilization by dark magic, knew that the technological wonder before her was just that.

"Wow!" said both Riku and Tess.

What they saw was the new Gummy Ship that Cid promised to bring over. She was the same shape as the Highwind series but bigger in length, width and height by several meters. Her hull and wings were colored orange and blue, while the tail section with the engines were green and gold.

"Glad you younguns like her," said Cid as he walked from the hatch on the new ship to the platform where Sora and the others were.

"Cid, she's amazing!" said an eager Sora.

"You must have worked around the clock, Cid" said Riku.

"She's awesome!" said Kairi.

"What a remarkable work of technology," said Aiden.

"If this is the standard for ships in this universe," said Tess, "then I'm already impressed."

"It's a Gummy Ship," said Donald, "not a boat for water."

"We use Gummy Ships to go to other worlds," Goofy.

"Oh," said Tess, "a starship. My father told me that years ago our world had visitors from other planets. Metamore was once an advanced civilization, before that maniac Phobos ruined everything."

"Well we helped stet things back on the right track," said Kairi, "if anyone can rebuild Metamore to the way it was, it's Elyon and her friends, The Guardians."

"I believe it," said Tess.

"Ya' kids gonna chatter all day?" Cid asked, "or are ya' gonna to see all of my hard work?"

"Oh, right," said Sora, "I think we're all ready for the tour."

"'Bout time," said Cid. Everyone then followed him aboard the new ship and. Sora and the others were immediately amazed again.

"Now this is what I call a bridge," said Riku as they saw the command module. It was a large oval room with multiple chairs with computer Consoles. In the middle was the Captains' chair with the rest of the bridge stations spaced around it. Directly behind was a seat that displayed the status of the engines and the overall ship status. To the right of the command seat was an area for sensor analysis and to the left was a seat for weapons control. The helm and navigation seats were to the front of the room and at the front was a large display screen.

"This is just like on Star Trek," said a grinning Kairi.

"Thought you'd like it," said Cid.

"That's all?" said a female voice that seemed to come from all around our heroes, "they only 'like' me? You'd think they'd be overjoyed, ecstatic or delighted. But it's only 'like.'"

"Who said that?" said a slightly nervous Tess, "what magic is this?"

"Magic has nothing to do with me," said the female voice, "a good part of the ship runs of magic, but not me. I'm pure science through and through."

Just then a hologram of a girl in her late teens with shoulder-length tawny hair and hazel eyes appeared. The image of the girl wore a green and white shirt and skirt with orange shoes.

"You're an AI program," said Riku, "cool!"

"Is that all I am?" the holographic girl asked, "just 'cool?' How about amazing, fantastic, super-califragilistic-expialidocious even."

"Wait," said Sora, "are you the ship's computer?"

"In the flesh," said the holographic girl as she smiled, "so to speak."

"Now this is super-califragilistic-expialidocious ," said Kairi, "to the max."

"Oh, I like this one," said the holographic girl, "you must be Kairi. And this is Sora, Riku, Donald, Goofy, and the one who looks like he has no idea what he's seeing must be Aiden," she then looked at Tess, "you must be new to the group. My name is Sidney. I am an artificial intelligence program; in other words, I'm the brain of this starship."

"My father told me that our world was experimenting in artificial intelligence," said Tess, "before the tyranny of Phobos, but I thought they were just stories," she smiled, "I'm glad that he was right."

"That's great that your dad wasn't making things up," said Aiden to Tess,he looked at Sidney, "but what do you do?"

"Didn't you hear her?" Riku asked, "she's the brain of the ship, which means she runs the ship."

"In a manner of speaking, yes," said Sidney, "my duties include monitoring the environmental systems to ensure the relative comfort of the crew, as well as making sure that the engines are running as smoothly and efficiently as possible, and a whole lot of other boring stuff that are needed for travel among the worlds.

"Also," Sidney then placed her holographic hand on Sora's shoulder, startling him as he realized he was feeling, it seemed, flesh and blood. "my holographic matrix is advanced enough so that I feel as real as the real thing, all so that the crew feels more comfortable with my presence."

"So you're just like a real person?" Tess asked, "that's amazing!"

"Fantastic," said Riku

"Super awesome!" said Aiden.

"Definitely super-califragilistic-expialidocious," said Kairi

"Definitely," said Sora, "I wish my old ship had a computer as cool as you are."

"I wish I existed back then," said Sidney, "to work with as great a crew as you guys. Back at Radiant Garden, you're all heroes, real heroes, especially Sora and Kairi."

"Did you hear that," said Donald to Goofy, "we're real heroes now."

"We still gotta convince Phil," said Goofy.

"Oh, right," said Donald in a deflated tone.

"We'll visit Olympus Coliseum after Neverland," said Sora.

"Wait a second," said Riku, "what about me? Why aren't I a real hero on Radiant Garden?"

"You are," said Sidney, "and so is Aiden. Everyone on Radiant Garden knows of the exploits of The Keyblade Wielders. It's just that Sora and Kairi are the bigger heroes in the eyes of the people. Sora because he basically saved the universe twice, and Kairi because she's the princess of Radiant Garden, as well as a Princess of Heart."

"So you're a real princess?" Aiden asked Kairi, "I didn't know that."

"Neither did I," said Tess, "then again, I'm still new at all of this."

"It's not something I like to talk about," said Kairi in a tone that said that she was feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

Sora sympathized with her. He knew that Kairi's birth parents were killed along with a lot of other people when Xehanort experiments with the darkness on Radiant Garden lead to the world being covered in darkness, followed by Maleficent's takeover of that world and renaming it Hollow Bastion.

"We'll worry about that when we get to Radiant Garden," said Sora. He then spoke telepathically to Kairi, _:we'll make that our last stop.:_

_:Thanks,:_ said Kairi back via ESP, _:but I'll have to face my past sooner or later, so we might as well get it over with sooner.:_

_:Our thoughts exactly,:_ said Roxas as he and Naminé finally caught up with our heroes and boarded the ship.

"Oh, more crewmembers," said Sidney, "that's alright. The ship has room for up to twenty permanent members."

"You must be the ships' computer," said Naminé, "please to meet you."

"Likewise," said Roxas as he and Naminé shook hands with Sidney. "Anyway, Sora, Kairi, if it's okay with you and the others, Naminé and I are gonna call it a day, so to speak."

"You're going to go back inside of us," said Kairi, "that's okay. We've all had a long adventure and need a rest."

"Glad you understand," said Naminé. With that she and Roxas merged back with Kairi and Riku.

"How remarkable," said Sidney, "two people who are actually four. Quite remarkable."

"You may be intrigued," said Aiden in a disturbed tone, "but it's still freaky to me."

"Not me," said Tess, "I can turn invisible after all, so I'm used to the weird and bizarre."

"Right," said Aiden, "I should have realized."

"Okay, so we've got the bridge covered," said Cid, "let's get this show rollin' again."

"Is it me or does this ship kinda look bigger on the inside?" Sora asked as our heroes followed Cid out of the bridge and down to the next deck.

"It is bigger on the inside," said Sidney as she walked with them, "and in case you're wondering, the whole ship is equipped with holographic projectors. I can appear anyplace on the ship that I'm needed."

"There's another thing," said Kairi.

"Right you are," said Sidney, "anyway, I believe Merlin had something to do with the construction of this vessel. Said wizard has infused a spell that would squeeze the most out of the inside, or rather, squeeze in."

"Righteous," said an impressed Riku.

"That it is," said Sidney.

"If Merlin and Cid built the ship," said Sora, "who made you? No offense."

"None taken," said Sidney, "I was created in the formerly known Hollow Bastion Restoration defense computer, by the controlling program, Tron."

"Tron made you?" Sora asked, "for real?"

"That's an affirmative," said Sidney, "he designed and beta tested me, so here I am."

"So he's kinda like your daddy," said Goofy.

"Tron's a dad?" Donald asked.

"In a manner of speaking, yes," said Sidney, "Tron is my father. As to my name, that as Yuffie's contribution. She thought it would be funny that I had a girl's version of the name Cid, hence Sidney."

At that everyone laughed heartily.

"And Yuffie is proven right," said a grinning Sidney.

"Yeah, real funny," said a slightly disgruntled Cid.

Our heroes then reached the area that served as the galley. "Here we have a fully stocked, state of the art kitchen," said Sidney, "complete with multi-functioned food processors, an electric stove and oven, as well as a convection oven, a microwave oven and a computer program with just about every recipe in the realms; if you can cook it, it can be made here."

"I don't suppose you're also a chef, Sidney?" Aiden asked as he cautiously eyed a food processor, "I'm a really great Alchemist, but not that great a cook."

"You're not that bad," said Sora, "you helped make dinner a few times."

"I nearly burned your house down that time I tried to cook a roast!" said Aiden in an exasperated tone, "if I hadn't transmuted the air around the oven into non-flammable gas, then we'd all be out of a home. And don't get me started about the time we used that pressure cooker."

"Oh, right," said a slightly sheepish Sora, "the pressure cooker. That wasn't one of our brighter ideas."

"What happened?" Riku asked, "this is the first time I've heard of anything you did with a pressure cooker."

"You must have been out of town that day," said Kairi, "okay, short version; the pressure cooker at Sora's house blew up, end of story."

"I managed to repair everything that got wrecked," said Aiden, "but let's just say that Sora's mom wasn't happy that it happened in the first place. And don't get me started on how mad she was that Sora and I tried to deep-fry a turkey for fun."

"I wish you wouldn't bring up the deep-fryer incident," said Sora.

"Oh, please bring that up," said Kairi, "that story is hilarious."

"What are you talking about?" Riku asked.

"You were out of town that day," said Aiden, "when we used a deep-fryer and I fried my hand, seriously," he held up his left hand, "and Kairi healed it in no time."

"My mom made me throw out the deep fryer," said Sora, "after I cleaned the whole house from top to bottom."

"I'm glad I missed that," said Riku.

"I'm sorry to say it," said Sidney, "but I was never programmed to cook. I have over a million recipes stored in my permanent memory, but you people are going to have to do the actual cooking."

"Fair enough," said Tess, "I'm an adequate cook myself. I had to be one since I was on my own for so long."

"I'm pretty handy in the kitchen," said Riku.

"Thanks' for volunteering," said an eager Aiden.

"Gee, thanks," muttered Riku.

Our heroes were then lead to the area marked for crew quarters. "Each room has it's own bed, a desk and a large closet," said Sidney, "as well as your own full bathroom."

"Finally!" said Sora, "the old Gummy Ships had only one bathroom each."

"How'd you survive having to share?" Kairi asked Sora, Donald and Goofy.

"Well, it wasn't easy," said Goofy, while Donald nodded in agreement.

"The ship has it's own Laundromat," said Sidney, "but, like the kitchen, you'll have to do the washing yourselves."

"That's okay," said Kairi, "we'll take turns," she eyed Sora, Riku and Aiden, "right, boys?"

"Right," muttered Sora, Riku and Aiden.

"Moving on," said Sidney as she and Cid lead our heroes to a large room that was filled with various forms of entertainment, "we have the Recreation Room. We've got two High Definition Plasma Screens, each with built-in DVD and Blu-Ray players, as well as each a Playstation 3, an X-Box 360 and a Nintendo Wii. For each game console there are multiple game titles, depending on what you like."

"Super awesome!" said Sora. He looked at Riku, "I'm gonna totally kick your butt in Halo!"

"And I'm gonna wipe the floor with you in Medal of Honor," said Riku.

"What's this?" Tess asked as she pointed at another big-screen.

"That's the music area," said Sidney, "there you can access over a billion albums in MP3 format," a panel in a cabinet next to the wall opened, revealing several advanced MP3 players with headphones, "and these are for all of you."

"Super awesome!" said Riku.

"The system also has a multi-band digital radio," said Sidney, "and a downloading feature for new music. And there's a Karaoke program as well."

"Super sweet!" said Kairi.

"I thought you'd like that," said Sidney, "also on this deck is an exorcise room, complete with weight machines and cardio machines."

"That's good," said Sora, "being able to work out will help keep us in shape while traveling.

"Glad you approve," said Sidney, "now, moving on to the next deck."

One floor down found our heroes in a large sickbay. "this has some of the most advanced medical equipment available," said Cid, "in case your healing magic don't work and you're nowhere near a Moogle to stock up on recovery items."

"This is great," said Kairi.

"It should be," said Sidney, "the sickbay has built-in medical scanners that can diagnose any injury or illness and prepare the correct treatment."

"And of course we have to do the hard work," said Aiden.

"That's how it goes," said Sidney, "but wait until you see the next room."

Next to the sickbay was an advanced science lab, "the computers here have a direct link to the ships' scanners," said Sidney, "here you can analyze data from space, as well as samples taken from the worlds."

"Prodigious!" said an impressed Aiden.

"Glad you like it," said Sidney.

"Okay, now we get to the serious part," said Cid. He directed everyone to the next deck down to the engine room, which took up the entire deck, "this is the heart of the ship. Now pay attention, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. This ship has a newly designed power plant that'll practically last forever, if you take care of it," he picked up a large 3-ring binder and tossed it to Sora, "make sure you kids read that all the way through at least twice. If 'ya don't, it's your funeral."

"We get it," said Riku, "take care of the engine and I'll take care of us. If we don't take care of the engine, kaboom!"

"Right," said Cid, "one more thing," he then opened a panel in the wall that revealed a large red button that was under a glass box, which was secured by a padlock.

"There's another button like this on the bridge," said Cid, "and one in the weapons control room, which we'll get to soon enough," he tossed three identical keys to Riku.

"What do the buttons do?" Riku asked.

"They override the safety levels on the engine," said Cid, "and transfer all of the ships' power to the weapons for one massive blast. This is only an emergency move, and you should use it unless there's nothing else to do, 'cause if you use it, you'll be dead in space and it'll take the engine a while to power back up, like twenty minutes or so."

"Okay," said Riku, "we'll remember that," he handed one key to Kairi and one to Sora and they all pocketed them, "we won't use it unless there's nothing else to do."

"Great," said Cid, "now let's get this wrapped up.

Just before they left the engine room, Sora saw something rather strange, "uh, Cid? Why is there a watermelon attached to one of the engine parts?"

True enough, a large watermelon was hardwired to one of the components of the engine.

"I'll tell ya' later," said Cid, "come on, there' still a lot to go through."

The next deck had an auxiliary bridge for emergencies, as well as the ship's transporter room.

"Here you can beam down to the worlds," said Sidney, "the ship can also land on the surface of a world, if you want."

Next was the computer core room, where a 20ft tall PC towered over our heroes, "This is me actually," said Sidney as she pointed to the gargantuan computer, "all the ship's functions pass through here."

"I gotta say," said Aiden as he admired the large computer core, "for a machine that can think, you're awesome!"

At that Sidney blushed, "flattery will get you nowhere. I may be able to think for myself and have emotions, but remember, I have no physical flesh."

"We're just friends," said Aiden.

"Next is the weapons' control room," said Cid as they left the computer core.

"Now we're talking my language," said an eager Tess. "I've had a lot of experience with weapons."

"Not these I don't think," said Cid as they entered the next room. The walls were covered with computer displays showing different weapons.

"You've got ya' lasers," said Cid, "ten cannons; six fore, four aft. Then you've got four missile pods, two on each side above and below the wings. And then there's three torpedo launchers, two fore, one aft. All of the weapon arrays retract into the ship.

"You've also can use up to four Teeny Ships, all equipped with lasers, missiles and torpedoes. And all weapons can be modified to inflict Fire, Blizzard and Thunder damage to whatever ya' shootin' at."

"You sound as if this ship was going into a war," said Tess as she looked at the computer displays that showed torpedo status. She smiled, "excellent."

"We did face a lot of space-borne Heartless," said Sora, "who knows how many more are out there."

Tess admired all of the weapon computers, "I think I can get used to this. Yes, I can definitely get a grip on this."

"Guess that makes you the tactical officer," said Riku, he then looked at Aiden, "and you're the science officer."

"Sounds like fun," said Aiden, "what does that mean?"

"It means you'll be in charge of the ships scanners and analyzing all the data that comes in," said Sidney, "from a human's perspective." She looked at Kairi, "you'll be the medical officer," she looked at Riku, "and you'll be the helmsman."

"And I'm the captain," said Sora, "right?"

"Actually," said Sidney, "that will be Riku's job as well."

"What?" a shocked Sora asked.

At that Sidney started laughing, "just kidding! Sorry, I couldn't resist."

"A hologram with a sense of humor," said Kairi, "nice."

"What about navigation?" Riku asked, "and engendering?"

"That'll be us," said both Chip and Dale as they scampered up to our heroes.

"We'll take care of the engines," said Chip.

"Just leave it to us!" said Dale.

"And I'll be the navigator," said Jiminy as he hopped up to our heroes. He then tipped his hat to Tess, "Cricket's the name, Jiminy Cricket."

"Uh…nice to meet you all," said Tess.

"Hey, what about us?" Donald asked.

"What are we supposed to do?" Goofy asked.

"You each have a specific role to play in this crew," said Sidney, "if we all could go back to the engine room."

They followed Sidney back to the deck above, "Donald, if you'll direct your attention to the power plant."

Donald looked at the generator in the middle of the engine, "that's the source of the ship's energy," said Sidney, "Merlin created the magical reactor, and it'll be your job to make sure that the magic doesn't go out or worse, go out of control."

"That is an important job," said Kairi, "a lot of things could go wrong on a ship, especially a star ship. If there's a problem in the engine we could all blow up."

"Or die of dark magic contamination," said Riku, "or radiation poisoning."

"Gee, now I _really _want to go into space," said Aiden.

"I don't think things could go that wrong," said Sidney, "Tron constructed a lot of simulations about this ship and we determined that there are some scenarios where there could be a problem with the power The most obvious worse-case event would be the core going out of balance."

Sidney looked at Donald, "that will be your main responsibility, Donald. Once you've been fully briefed on the maintenance of the core, you'll be in charge of making sure that the magic doesn't go out of balance."

"What do you mean, 'going out of balance?'" Kairi asked, "like with the Ph of water?"

"More like a seesaw," said Sidney, "look," a smaller hologram appeared next to her. The image was a seesaw that was marked 'Power Core'. "The core tends to accumulate waste magic as time goes by. If too much waste magic builds up," the image of the seesaw changed to show one side of the seesaw covered in a black mass marked 'waste magic,' "then the core will go out of balance and, in the best case situation, break," the weight of the waste magic caused the seesaw to tilt over on its side.

"Donald's duty will involve checking the levels of waste magic and, in layman's terms, dump it into the vacuum of space where it will be rendered harmless," the image of the seesaw was then freed of the waste magic and was restored to normal balance.

"Okay, I can do that," said Donald.

"What about the other things that could go wrong?" Riku asked.

"Ah, I knew you'd ask about that," said Sidney, "the core could explode due to damage from external and internal influences. One internal force could be an overload in one of the systems. An overload could cause a backlash in the core and cause it to explode.

"But in the event of an overload, the core is programmed to shut down automatically and can be restarted manually.

"Another source of a backlash would be an energy discharge caused by an enemy attack. Again, the core would shut down if the computer detects an impending backlash."

"How do we turn the core back on?" Aiden asked

"Everything will be explained in the manual," said Sidney as a side panel opened in the wall, revealing another 3-ring binder, "I'll say it now that there's a lot of manuals involved with this ship. They're all easy to understand, but just to be safe I'd like all of you to read all of them."

"Just in case," said Riku, "right, we'll study up, all of us."

"Oh great," said Sora, "more schoolwork. Are there going to be pop quizzes?"

"Well," said Sidney, "I am programmed to run emergency simulations to help you know what to expect in a worse-case scenario. I can simulate Heartless attacks, as well as confrontations with hostile aliens, and I can simulate any malfunctioning system. That can teach you how to repair said systems.

"And then there is the final worse-case scenario involved with the engine. A slightly different out of control chain reaction could cause the core to implode and the ship will crush itself. Again, the core would shut down.

"But there is one last worse case scenario, one where, by whatever unexpected reason, the core cannot be shut down, then the core can manually ejected into space. The momentum of the ejection would carry the core far enough away from the ship so that the ship won't be harmed when the core either explodes or implodes."

"Won't that leave us dead in space?" Kairi asked.

"The ships' emergency power has enough reserves to keep life support systems running," said Sidney, "and there is a secondary battery that can be charged with the normal running of the ship. This battery, once charged, can supply the ship with enough power for one hyperspace jump to the nearest world. The ship also has an automatic distress beacon that has a separate power source.

"I can assure all of you that every safety precaution has been taken into consideration and every worse-case scenario has been examined from every angle. This ship is as safe as humanly and technologically possible."

"Well, if Cid, Merlin, Yuffie and you, Sidney, think it's safe," said Sora, "then so do I."

"Me to," said Kairi, while Riku, Kairi, Aiden, Tess and Donald nodded in agreement.

"Oh, I almost forgot," said Sidney, "Goofy, you role in this crew is the ships' gunner. While Tess is in charge of the weapon systems, you'll be the one to do the actual fighting. Whenever this ship goes into battle, you'll be the one to pull the trigger."

"Lock and load!" said Goofy as he saluted.

"And that pretty much ends the tour," said Sidney, "the ship's storage holds and cargo holds are all magical and be accessed from any point in the ship."

"So we can get spare parts wherever they're needed," said Sora, "and we can just store our stuff as we get it. Cool, no, super cool."

"Oh dear," said Sidney, "it looks like I have to improve your vocabulary as well. At least there's plenty of time for all of us to learn from each other."

"We do have a lot of reading to do," said Kairi, "before we take the ship out. Sidney, is there like one big manual that covers everything about the ship? You know, instead of several smaller ones?"

"I already have that covered," said Sidney. Several overhead panels opened and a large 3-ring binder dropped into the hands of each of our heroes, "I suggest you all read this."

"This is going to be one of those days that just won't end," said Aiden as he opened his binder to the first page.

"I've had plenty of those," said Tess.

* * *

><p>…New Hollow Bastion…<p>

"Forgive me, oh great and terrible Maleficent," said one of the lesser Hakonians, "we've searched every inch of this world. There is no sign of either Happosai or Ansem."

"Incompetent fool!" spat Maleficent as she blasted the lesser Hakonian with dark lightning. "Of course they're gone! Those two miserable old men would have to be completely brainless to stay on this world.

"By now they have reached the realms of light and think themselves safe. But their safety is an illusion. It is only a matter of time before we are ready to strike out at the worlds. Soon this universe will fall to the darkness."

Just then Pete came in carrying a huge metal club, "I'm ready to go after them, boss lady," he said as he gave the club a swing, "just say so and I'll bring back the old geezers!"

"Never mind Happosai and Ansem," said Maleficent, "at this moment they're not worthy of my consideration. Instead I have a different task for you, Pete."

"You want me to go after Rakel and Reddik?" Pete asked, "the others who ran away?" He dry swallowed nervously, for only a few minutes ago he met with said fugitive Hakonians. Rakel and Reddik had betrayed their Hakonian comrades on Metamore and went rogue, only returning to New Hollow Bastion to collect their belongings, the demon familiar Kichot, and to say goodbye to Pete. They told Pete that their conversation would go unnoticed by the rest of the castle, but Pete knew that if ever Maleficent found out, then he'd suffer worse than all the punishments inflicted on the Hakonians combined.

"I already have my best goblin trackers and canine-type Heartless after those traitors," said Maleficent, "but I know that they will not find the fugitives. Rather, I believe that in time, Rakel and Reddik will return to this world, if only to…settle the score with me."

"Oh," said Pete as he blinked with relief, "then what do you want me to do?"

Maleficent then called up several images that showed Rakel, Reddik, Erika, Konrad, Ulrik, Katarina and Nikolai. "With three of the Hakonian elite dead," a large red X appeared on the images of Ulrik, Konrad and Erika, "with two of them on the run," on the images of Reddik and Rakel a large black **R** for rogue appeared, "and with the last two…indisposed," on the images of Katarina and Nikolai appeared in bright pink letters 'engaged,' "we are in need of some new subordinates. Don't you think so, Pete?"

"Uh…yeah, I guess so," said Pete, "so, wait, don't tell me. You want me to pick out from them other Hakonians some new thugs, right?"

"In those terms, yes," said Maleficent, "specifically I wish you to interview among the more…mature and experienced Hakonians some new enforcers and officers. I also wish you to select from the newly controlled Nobodies as well.

Just then a Moogle wearing a black Organization XIII coat walked in, "the new controlling ring you asked for is done, Kuppo!" said the Moogle as he carried a white ring towards Maleficent.

"Deliver it to my fury friend here," said Maleficent. The Moogle gave the white ring to Pete, "now you can control Nobodies as well, my friend."

"Sweet," said Pete as he put the ring on his large club, "so, I gotta choose among them Nobodies the biggest, toughest an' meanest to fight them Keyblade brats?"

"I want you to choose Nobodies that can think for themselves," said a slightly annoyed Maleficent, "Nobodies that remember what it was to be human. Nobodies, like the ones that formed Organization XIII. But this time, with the control rings, we will be the masters. This time the Nobodies will obey us, just like Xorat."

Maleficent then summoned an image that showed a Nobody with white hair and wearing a martial artist outfit. He was in one of the newly built training rooms in the castle, and was proceeding to destroy multiple practice dummies.

"This outstanding specimen used to be Pantyhose Taro," said Maleficent, "as you know, Pete, I cultivated the darkness in his heart, until he became both a Heartless and a Nobody," she called forth another image, this one showing the chimera-creature that Pantyhose Taro would turn into when he touched cold water. This creature is his Heartless, renamed Chimericon Mark 2.

"Do you understand now, Pete?" Maleficent asked, "I wish for dark warriors and dark magic users from the Hakonians and Nobodies, and I want competent ones. Is that understood."

"You betcha!" said Pete as he saluted. He then walked out of the room.

"Now things are finally coming together, my pet," said Maleficent to her raven, "now that we know that it was that miserable Ansem who was sending those disgusting messages about that wretched L. Lawlette. I can assure you, my pet, that that wretched old man will suffer dearly for the mental suffering he put me through these past months."

Just then another of the lesser Hakonians entered the room. "Great one," said the lesser Hakonian, "the latest Heartless operation is ready to depart. The two Warriors and the Warlock Hakonians have been briefed and are awaiting your approval to commence the operation."

"Outstanding," said Maleficent, "This operation will allow us access to valuable resources, resources that will allow the darkness to spread that much faster. The order to commence the operation is approved."

"It shall be done, great one," said the lesser Hakonian. He bowed and left the room.

* * *

><p>…Disney Castle…<p>

After several hours of studying the ship manuals, our heroes were ready to take the new ship out into space.

"My brain feels like it's about to overflow," said Sora, "if I have to memorize one more schematic or another repair procedure, I think I'll explode."

"If you explode then I'm gonna have to fix you," said Riku, "otherwise I'll have to clean you up."

"I'll clean you both up if you don't shut up," said a slightly annoyed Tess, "I'm trying not to forget anything."

"I don't get why you had such a hard time with this," said Kairi, "the manuals were easy enough to understand."

"Understand yes," said Aiden, "remember, not so easy, even I'm having trouble keeping everything straight."

"Well you'll all have plenty of time to re-read everything," said The King as he, The Queen, Cid and Pluto escorted our heroes back to the Gummy Hanger, "if you're heading to Neverland first, you can use the flight time to study."

"I was hoping to use the time to get settled in," said Kairi, "unpack our stuff." Our heroes had taken an hour's break to go back to their homes on the islands and pack for their next adventure. Riku had also introduced Tess to his family, as a friend of course, and the meeting went rather well.

"We should use the flight time as a shakedown," said Riku, "make sure all the bugs have been worked out of the system."

They reached the ship and Sidney appeared in the hatchway, "Cid and Tron did all the debugging needed. They wouldn't have brought the ship here if there was a problem. But…" she sighed, "if you fleshlings feel the need to get used to your new home away from home, you'll have eleven hours to make yourselves at home before we get to Neverland.

"That's right," said Kairi, "if we're going to be touring the worlds, then this ship is our home."

"Eleven hours to Neverland," said an impressed Sora, "It took nearly twice that long just to get there from Traverse Town, and that's through the warp zone."

"Improved hyper drive," said Cid, "been working on it for a while. She'll get you where you need to go in no time flat."

"It'll definitely make things less tedious if we're not crammed together for too long," said Riku, "less chance of cabin fever."

"We definitely don't want that," said Tess, "I knew people on Metamore who went completely out of their minds with cabin fever from hiding in enclosed spaces from Phobos' dogs."

"Hopefully we won't have that kind of problem," said Kairi.

"Wait a second!" said a slightly dumbfounded Sora, "a name, our new ship doesn't have a name!"

"He's right," said Riku, "we need to name the ship. It's bad luck to have a ship without a name."

"Didn't you name the ship?" Aiden asked Cid.

"I only build 'em," said Cid, "an' leave the namin' to the customers."

"How about Sidney?" Tess asked, "if the brain of the ship has a name, why not cal the ship that?"

"I'm just the A.I.," said Sidney, "a ship should have a separate name. and don't ask me to do it. I'm a little short on creativity right now. I'll learn that later on, but my programming is seriously lacking inspiration."

"So it's up to us then," said Goofy.

"Figures," said Donald.

"How about 'Heartless Buster?'" Sora asked.

"No," said Kairi, "that sounds like the name of a full-scale warship. It's got to be a name that identifies with the ship and her crew."

"'Keyblade Roamer?'" Riku asked.

"Not bad," said Kairi, "but still not right. What about 'Light Seeker?'"

"I don't know," said Sora, "it just doesn't feel right."

"You're right about that," said Kairi, "now that I think about it, that name just doesn't fit."

After several minutes thought, Aiden finally had an idea, "how about 'The Intrepid Heart?'"

"'The Intrepid Heart,'" said Riku, tasting the feel of the name on his tongue, "intrepid means courageous and bold."

"And the heart is the most important thing of all," said Sora, "without a heart, you're nothing."

"And a heart has to be bold and full of courage if you're going to face the darkness," said Kairi, "I like it, it's identifiable."

"It sings," said Donald.

"It tells who we are," said Goofy.

"Like a slogan," said Riku, "a trademark."

"A what?" Tess asked.

"I'll explain later," said Riku. He then looked at King Mickey, "we've decided on the name 'The Intrepid Heart.'"

"That's a great name," said King Mickey, "a hotdog name!" at that Pluto nodded in agreement.

"Then let us make it official," said Queen Minnie. She signaled for a pair of Handy Helpers, giant robotic hands wearing white gloves, to descend from the ceiling of the Gummy Hanger. One Handy Helper carried a large paintbrush, while the other carried a giant can of black paint. The robot hand then wrote on the side of the ship the words _The Intrepid Heart_.

A third Handy Helper brought down a champagne bottle and handed it to The Queen. "In the name of everything in the light," said Queen Minnie as she stood at the bow of the ship, "all things true, pure and righteous, I christen thee, _The Intrepid Heart!_" She raised the champagne bottle. Sora then noticed Donald and Goofy cringing, as if in anticipation of something terrible.

But then The King stopped her from breaking the bottle on the ship, "uh, maybe you'd better let me do that. Remember the last time you christened a ship?"

"Oh, right," said a slightly embarrassed Queen Minnie, "I nearly forgot. You're right."

The King smiled at The Queen, then broke the bottle on the bow of the ship, officially naming her _The Intrepid Heart_. Sora then saw Goofy and Donald relax.

Everyone then clapped with enthusiasm at the completion of the naming ceremony.

"What was that about?" Sora asked Donald and Goofy.

"It's kinda funny story," said Goofy.

"A long time ago," said Donald, "The King and us, we bought our own 'do-it-yourself' yacht kit."

"'All you do is put it together,'" said King Mickey in a slightly distant tone, as if remembering times long lost.

"'Even a child could do it,'" muttered Donald, "I said it before and I'll say it again; ah phooey!"

"To make a long story short," said The King "we built the boat, but to took a while."

At that Queen Minnie blushed, "and then when it came time to christen the boat, it fell apart when I broke the bottle on her."

"Which just goes to show you that you get what you paid for," said King Mickey.

"I can assure you all," said Sidney, "it'll take a lot more than a champagne bottle to break me."

"Well, I guess there's nothing else to do," said Sora, "but weight anchor and set sail!"

"Aye aye, captain!" said Riku, Kairi, Aiden, Tess, Donald and Goofy.

Chip and Dale ran up to our heroes, "everybody's bags are loaded!" said Dale.

"We're ready to go!" said Chip.

Jiminy then hopped onto Sora's shoulder, "all my journals have been updated from everything that's happened up until now," he then held up a fresh journal, "a new adventure should have a new record after all."

"Then all that's left to say is good luck," said King Mickey, "and be careful. There's a lot more than Heartless and Nobodies running amuck on the worlds now."

"Demons," said Riku, "we know. You already told us that they were looking around."

"But if they give us or anyone else trouble," said Aiden, "we'll show them that they can't mess around in the realms of light without getting what they deserve!"

"Darn right!" said Sora, while Kairi and the others nodded. With that our heroes boarded the ship.

"Hey, Sora!" shouted Cid, "if you scratch the paint, don't expect me to patch 'er up! That's your responsibility! I'll fix any problems with the engines and such, but you're taking care of the paint!"

"We'll be extra careful!" said Sora. The hatch then closed and the ship's systems powered up.

"Will they really be alright?" Queen Minnie asked.

"They're as ready as they can be," said King Mickey as he bent down to scratch Pluto behind the ears. "We can only hope."

The ship then rose up and left the hanger.

"Okay," said Sora as he sat in the captain's seat, while Riku sat at the helm, Tess and Goofy at the tactical seats, Aiden and Donald at engineering, Jiminy at navigation and Kairi at the science seat, "everybody ready?"

"Willing and able, captain!" said Aiden. He then rubbed his wrists in his own manner, "Alright! Let's do this!"

"Taking her up now, captain!" said Riku as he piloted the Intrepid Heart out of the gummy Hanger, out of the castle and up into the atmosphere. Within minutes they had achieved orbit.

"Wow," said an amazed Tess as the view screen showed the world below, "I've seen a lot of weird and wonderful stuff on Metamore, but this…"

"Seeing a world from space for the first time is always awe inspiring," said Riku, "and if you're this awestruck by one world, you ain't seen nothing yet!"

"First stop, Neverland," said Sora, "Jiminy, second star to the right, and straight on 'till morning!"

"Course laid in, captain," said Jiminy, "ready when you are."

"All systems are status green," said Sidney.

"And the crew is in excellent shape," said Kairi.

"Then let's go!" said Sora, "hit it!" with that Riku pressed the button on his consol and the engines powered up.

"Thirty seconds till hyperspace jump," said Riku.

"Well I'm kinda about to freak out," said a nervous Tess, "this is all new to me."

"There's nothing to be afraid of," said Riku, "we're as safe as can be."

"There won't be any ill effects of hyperspace travel," said Sidney, "unless it's your first time on such a journey. One's first hyperspace can be rather unpleasant, like being drunk."

"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" Aiden asked.

"Ask a glass of water," said Sidney.

Just then the engines finished powering up and the ship jumped into hyperspace.

Sora then noticed that Aiden and Tess were looking very uncomfortable, like they were on the verge of throwing up.

"I never tried anything with alcohol before," said a green-looking Aiden, "and I never will!"

"Where's the bathroom on this boat!" exclaimed Tess.

"In the event of space sickness," said Sidney, "your seats are equipped with space sickness bags. They're located underneath your seats"

Aiden and Tess grabbed the bags, but they didn't throw up.

"Wait, I think I'm okay now," said Aiden as he and Tess breathed slowly and clamed down.

"That was intense," said Tess. She and Aiden then saw the view screen, "wow!"

"So this is what it's like to travel faster than light," said Aiden as he looked out at the swirling blue and white tunnel of hyperspace.

"It'll get boring pretty quick," said Sora as everyone stood up from their seats, "we've got about eleven hours of this until we get to Neverland." He then yawned.

"You said it," said Kairi after she also yawned, "after all that's happened today, I'm good and bushed."

"Same with me," said Aiden.

"I'm not as tired," said Riku, "I'll stay and keep watch, you guys get some sleep."

"I'll stay up to," said Tess, while Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.

"Okay," said Sora, "wake us in five hours or so you guys can get some rest."

"And when we're all rested," said Kairi, "we'll get something to eat before we arrive in Neverland."

"I'm kinda looking forward to trying the kitchen out," said Aiden as he, Sora and Kairi headed for the crew quarters, "I mean, how hard can it be to cook for five humans, two chipmunks, a cricket, a duck and Goofy?"

"Just don't do anything until we're all ready for breakfast," said Kairi, "I'm pretty sure Sidney would be upset if one of us accidentally set the ship on fire."

"That's what the fire suppression systems are for," said Sidney as she followed our heroes, "that and fire extinguishers."

"I don't suppose there's such a thing as privacy on this ship, right?" Sora asked in a slightly embarrassed tone.

"If you wish for some alone time," said Sidney, "simply ask. I'll stay out of your quarters unless there is an emergency. And if you need to ask me something, just say my name."

"That's good to know," said Kairi as they reached their quarters.

"I'll leave you two to your thing," said Aiden as he opened the door to his room, "just don't make too much noise."

"We're not…we don't…" said a flabbergasted Sora.

"I know," said Aiden as he grinned, "I just like messing with you about it." He went into his room and closed the door after him.

"We're gonna get teased about us sleeping in the same bed for the rest of our lives," said Sora in a slightly depressed tone, "right?"

"Probably," said Kairi as she and Sora went into his room, while Kairi used a spell to summon some of her luggage from her room, "at least until we're married."

"Um…" said a blushing Sora, "are you…"

"No," said Kairi as she unpacked her pajamas, "I'm not asking you to marry me, Sora," she looked at him, "unless that's what you want."

"I do want to be with you," said Sora, "forever, but…we're too young to be married. I mean…"

"I understand completely," said Kairi as she went into the bathroom to change, "I want to wait as well."

"We'll have all the time in the universe when we're older," said Sora as he also got ready for bed.

A few minutes later they both climbed into bed, "you know," said Kairi as they got comfortable, "if this ship is going to be our home for the foreseeable future, then we're going to have to do something to make it a bit more livable. This room and the rest of the ship, it's so…Spartan."

"It is a little sparse," said Sora, "we'll do some shopping the next time we meet up with a Moogle."

He and Kairi then said goodnight, kissed and turned out the light. Within moments they were asleep.

* * *

><p>DREAM SEQUENCE<p>

Once again Sora found himself in the rain-drenched forest, chasing after the strange yet beautiful girl who runs with wolves. As always, the girl was moving faster than any human should and was just out of sight of Sora, taunting with her bell-like laughter.

Sora looked to his left as he ran and saw that Kairi and Aiden were running with him. "Wait!" Aiden shouted to the girl, "why won't you talk to us?"

"Who are you!" Kairi shouted.

"You'll find out soon," the girl said as she sprinted out of sight.

Just then Sora saw that Riku and Tess were running with them as well.

END DREAM SEQUENCE

* * *

><p>Sora and Kairi woke up with a start, "that girl is starting to get on my nerves," said Kairi as she looked at the nearby wall clock and saw that they had been asleep for only four hours.<p>

"But I feel like we're getting close," said Sora, "close to finding out who she is, and when we do, it'll mean something big."

He and Kairi then looked at each other with surprised eyes, "why was Riku and Tess there?" they both asked.

They ran out of the room, just as Aiden ran out of his room, "why was Riku and Tess in the dream with us if they were awake?" he asked. The three of them then ran onto the bridge, where a confused Riku and Tess stood.

"How did we get into your dreams?" Riku asked, "Tess and I were awake."

"They were," said Donald, while Goofy and Jiminy nodded in agreement.

"Was that a dream?" Tess asked, "I didn't fall a sleep. And who was that weird girl and why did I feel the need to chase after her."

"That's a long story," said Kairi, "but more importantly, how did you two get into the dream if you were awake the whole time?"

"I believe I can answer that," said Sidney, "if you'll look at the sensor logs, you'll notice a low-frequency energy reading. It's a carrier signal based on delta-waves, which are brain-wave patterns experienced during REM sleep. It's my theory that this signal induced a dream-like state, and that this signal was directed at you five humans."

"So that's how we've been dreaming the same dream," said a shocked Sora, "someone is making us dream it!"

"But how could Tess and I have the dream while we were still awake?" Riku asked, "one second we were rereading the manuals, the next thing, we're in the forest with the rest of you."

"The carrier signal must have caused a waking dream," said Aiden, "back in The State, there were rumors of hypnosis experiments where someone could be put into a dream-like trance yet still be awake."

"But what does it all have to do with chasing after that girl and those big wolves?" a slightly frantic Tess asked, "someone explain it to me, please!"

"We really don't know what it means," said Sora, "it could be that this girl is someone we're supposed to meet, that it's destiny giving us a heads-up. But now…"

"Now we know that someone is manipulating our dreams," said Riku in a serious tone, "and that means that someone is either messing with us, or is trying to deliver a message."

* * *

><p>…Twilight Town…<p>

"Either you're messing with those younglings," said Happosai, "or you're trying to tell them something."

"It's the later, I can assure you," said Young Watari, "it's all part of L's plan."

"And what plan would that be?" Ansem asked. Having just rescued Happosai from the dungeons of New Hollow Bastion, Ansem the Wise had finally been introduced to his mysterious benefactor, more or less. Through Young Watari, a man in his mid-twenties with short black hair and a handlebar moustache, Ansem had finally spoken via computer with L. Lawlette, or just L.

"For several months now I have been tormenting Maleficent with your name, L," said Ansem, "I figured it was to destroy what sanity she has, and I also rescued Happosai on your orders. I correctly assumed it because you wished for him to fight back against the darkness."

"Which I will," said Happosai as he lit his pipe, "and we agreed to do it my way. But what's it all for?"

A nearby laptop displayed a white screen with a large stylized L. From the computer spoke a digitally altered voice, "it's a complicated story," said L, "in short, all that has been done is all part of a larger plan to take down Maleficent and the other Villains once and for all. There are other factors in play that will be revealed later, but it's all under control."

"But why the dreams?" Ansem asked, "why torment Sora and his friends with an impossible chase?"

"That's another aspect of the plan," said L, "the dreams are designed to introduce The Keyblade Wielders with someone who will help them later on. But they're not the only ones dreaming. I've been sending dreams throughout time and space to young heroes who will eventually come together to battle Maleficent and the Hakonians.

"As for the girl, let me ask you, Happosai, what do you know about vampires?"

"A bit," said Happosai, "what, is the girl a vampire?"

"A half vampire actually," said L, "her name is Renesme Cullen. Eventually she will be a great help and a great friend to Sora and his companions. But what they don't know is that while they have been dreaming of Renesme, she, in her world, has been dreaming of them."

"Is that so?" Ansem asked, "well that's an unexpected twist."

Just then one of the sensors on the ship began beeping. "There's something up ahead," said Kairi as she read the sensor readings, "something big, and it's right in our flight path."

"What is it?" Sora asked.

"There's not enough data at this time," said Sidney, "all that is known at this time is that the anomaly is several hundred kilometers in diameter and is composed of an as of yet unidentified form of energy. Time to contact with anomaly…three minutes."

"What do you think?" Riku asked, "should we investigate."

"It's not like we absolutely have to be at Neverland when we said we would," said Aiden, "it couldn't hurt to take a look at whatever this…thing in space, is."

"I agree," said Tess as she grinned in anticipation, "we should look at this thing."

"It'd be a great edition to my journal," said Jiminy.

"Alright, you've talked me into it," said Sora. He and Kairi then used a clothes-changing spell to switch back to their normal attire, "take us out of hyperspace and we'll take a look."

The ship exited hyperspace and our heroes were immediately awestruck by the sight of a multi-colored…thing in space. It looked to be a giant blob of color, hundreds of miles tall.

"It's definitely made of energy," said Aiden as he looked over the sensor readings, "definitely magic of some kind."

"But what is it?" Tess asked.

"Wait," said Sidney, "now analyzing new data. Yes…yes…it's a portal."

"A portal?" Riku asked, "to another world?"

"Not to another world exactly," said Sidney, "but rather to another universe. This portal, hypothetically, opens up in the emptiness of space in another universe. I won't know for sure unless we gather more data."

"If it's a portal," said Sora, "who opened it? I don't think even Merlin and Yen Sid combined could make a portal that big."

"I don't think it's made by a magic user," said Aiden, "the portals we've seen are uniform, symmetrical, and definitely smaller. This portal is way too big and is uneven and slightly lopsided. I could be wrong, but I think this is a natural phenomenon."

"A naturally occurring portal?" Kair asked, "has this ever happened before?"

"There have been records of portals that have appeared on their own," said Sidney, "sometimes the fabric of nature folds onto itself and creates an opening. But there has never been any record of a natural portal this big."

"This is definitely one for the records," said Sora.

Just then another sensor monitor began beeping, only this one was flashing red. "I take it that red means something bad," said Tess.

"That's the Heartless Warning System!" said Kairi as she recognized that sensor from the manuals, "it tells us when there are spaceborn Heartless nearby."

"I'm reading a massive formation of space Heartless," said Aiden as he looked at the tactical screen, "the computer identifies hundreds of the following types: Gatling Ships, Bomb Bells, Knight Heads, Speeders, as well as dozens of Shields, and Phoenixes. I'm also reading various starships that the computer doesn't recognize."

"Let's see it!" said Sora as everyone got back to their seats. The visual screen then showed the massive formation of space Heartless, as well as well over a dozen gray-colored warships, each one was about 100 meters long and well armed with laser cannons and missile launchers. Also there was a very large ships that appeared to have mining equipment.

"What are the odds that those ships are Hakonian?" Riku asked, "who else would be flying with Heartless."

"This stinks of Maleficent," said Kairi.

"But where are they going?" Tess asked.

"I think that answers that question," said Aiden as he pointed at the forward screen. The Heartless and Hakonian armada was heading straight for the gargantuan portal.

"They're going to another universe," said Kairi.

"We've got to stop them!" said Sora, "wherever that portal opens up to, they're about to face a whole lot of baddies. We've got to help! Riku! Full speed ahead!"

"They'll reach the portal before we do," said Riku as he powered the ship's impulse engines to full. The ship lurched forward.

"Then we'll chase after them in that other universe," said Sora, "whatever's on the other side of that portal that Maleficent wants, we can't let her have it. And we can't let all those Heartless and Hakonians hurt anyone! We've got to stop them somehow!"

"So we're going to an unknown universe to stop the enemy from getting some unknown thing," said Aiden, "are we even sure that's their plan?"

"Well I'm not going to let the enemy have their way," said Kairi, "whatever their plan is. Let's go!"

"Just get me close enough," said Tess, "I'll stop them!"

"Same with us!" said Donald, while Goofy nodded in agreement.

"You should know that we're about forty seconds from the portal," said Sidney, "if we're going to turn back, now's the time, I'm just saying."

"We're not turning back," said Sora, "Riku, if you haven't floored it, do it now!"

"Remind me to thank Cid for putting Turbo Boosters on this ship," said Riku. He pressed the desired button and the ship lurched forward with even more speed. By then the armada of Heartless and Hakonians had entered the portal, but our heroes weren't far behind.

"Sorry, Tink," said Sora as the Intrepid Heart was just seconds from entering the portal, "looks like we'll have to take a rain check." With that the ship entered the portal.

**The end of chapter 1.**

_(Note: The watermelon really has no purpose in the function of the ship. I just put it in there because of one funny scene from Buckaroo Banzai. See it, you won't be disappointed. Also, I had to spell super-califragilistic-expialidocious the way I did, because the website wouldn't let it be posted the normal way, so bare with me.)_

Next chapter, our heroes arrive in the depths of space of another universe and give chase after the enemy armada. But while pursuing the enemy, they stumble into a conflict of epic proportions. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!


	2. Chapter 2: The Wave Motion Gun

Last time found Sora and the others amazed by the new Gummy Ship, especially with the ships' A.I., Sidney. Our heroes got aquainted with the specifics of the ship, named her The Intrepid Heart, and set out to tour the worlds, the first stop being Neverland.

Meanwhile, Maleficent ordered Pete to pick out from the ranks of Hakonians some new minions, as well as cull several strong-willed Hakonians. The mistress of all evil then okayed a new operation to procure some new resources.

In route to Neverland, our heroes once again dreamed of chasing after The Girl who Runs with Wolves, only now Tess joined in the chase. Sidney pointed out that the ships sensors detected energy waves that induce dreams.

On Twilight Town, the mysterious L revealed to Ansem and Happosai that he was the one causing our heroes to dream of the girl, while at the same time, sending dreams to others throughout existence.

Our heroes then came upon a large, naturally occurring portal in space. They then saw a massive armada of Heartless and Hakonian warships heading for the portal. Realizing that something insidious was afoot, our heroes gave chasse. 'Nuff said, on with the show!

**Chapter 2: The Wave Motion Gun**

The sensation of passing through the massive portal in space left Sora and the others severely disoriented. It wasn't like traveling through hyperspace for the first time, rather, it was like being turned upside down, having your vision messed up like it was a photo negative, and then being spun like a top. Add to the fact that time seemed to stop completely for a few seconds, all of it left our heroes feeling like they had just been on the most violent roller coaster ride of their lives.

But in reality it all lasted less than a second and our heroes soon recovered their vision and sense of balance, though they all felt like they had just ran a mile without warming up first.

"Everybody alright?" Sora asked as they all got back up.

"I think I can taste sound," said a still dizzy Aiden.

"You think that's bad?" a rather green looking Tess asked, "I can smell color."

"Just give us a second so we can all recover our senses," said Riku. He shook his head as if to clear his ears of water, "there, everything is where it should be now."

"For a second I thought my eyes had been taken out and put back in upside down," said Kairi.

"How exasperating," said Donald.

"I didn't feel nuthin'," said Goofy.

"Well that just makes you special," said a slightly irate Tess.

"Let's just pull ourselves together," said Sora, "Sidney, what's the ships' status?"

"Keep your shirt on," said Sidney as her holographic image flickered for a second, "you're not the only ones disoriented. Hang on…yes…yes," her image cleared, "there. All systems are status green except for external sensors. The engine core was also effected by the portal transition. I'm reading a 2.37% balance disruption, nothing dangerously serious, but the imbalance should be corrected as soon as possible."

"On it!" shouted Donald as he ran for the door and headed for the engine room.

"Who's going to remind him that he can take care of the engine core from up here?" Aiden asked, "the manuals said that a core imbalance can be corrected from the bridge."

"Let's wait until Donald gets back," Sora, "but we'll have to be careful, or he'll bow his top."

"What about external sensors?" Riku asked, "Sidney, how soon until we can see where we are?"

"Oh, the short-range sensors are still online," said Sidney, "as well as the hull cameras. Activating view screen now."

The forward screen turned on and our heroes saw a different set of stars than before.

"We're really in another universe," said Tess, "wow."

"Where did that horde of Heartless ships and Hakonians go?" Kairi asked, "Sidney, how do I change the camera view on the screen?"

"It's on your consol panel," said Sidney.

The appropriate buttons lit up on Kairi's station and she pressed them. The forward screen showed different angles of the stars outside, until finally the image showed the massive formation of Heartless and Hakonian ships. The enemy armada was forming up to jump into hyperspace.

"They're getting away!" shouted Sora. He hit a communications button on his computer consol, "Donald! How soon until the engine is ready?"

"Hold your horses!" said Donald, "I'm working here!"

"Even if the engines are working completely," said Riku, "it won't matter."

"The sensors are still offline," said Sidney, "if we try to go after the enemy without sensors, the ship could easily get lost in this strange universe. And before you ask, I'm working as fast as I can to restore sensors. It'll be another thirty seconds before the system is restored."

Just then the enemy armada vanished into hyperspace, leaving our heroes alone among the stars.

"We can track their energy signatures," said Sidney, "all ships capable of Faster Than Light travel have engines that give off unique energy signatures. Once I've locked onto their signature, we can easily follow them wherever they go."

"Won't they be able to track us as well?" Kairi asked.

"Not if we stay directly behind them," said Tess, "they can't track what they can't see."

"This isn't like a human being not being able to see directly behind them," said Aiden, "I'm guessing that all ships have eyes in the back of their heads."

"True," said Sidney, "but our ship is equipped with a cloaking device, it' sin the manuals."

"That's right!" said Kairi, "we do have a cloaking device!"

"Why didn't Cid tell us about it?" Aiden asked, "why did we have to read about it in the manuals?"

"I'll bet Cid had a lot on his mind," said Sora.

"Well reguardless," said Sidney, "We can remain invisible to their sensors for as long as the cloaking field remains active. And just so you'll know, all our sensors are online again, and Donald just finished correcting the imbalance and is on his way back to the bridge."

"Right," said Sora, "Riku, take us forward to where the enemy was. Let's lock onto their energy signature and follow them."

"How long can the cloaking device remain active?" Kairi asked as she checked her manual, "according to this, the device is an experimental model."

"It's one of Cid's more recent inventions," said Sidney, "with a little help from Merlin. The device can remain active for up to two hours. But the device requires enormous power amounts. All secondary systems will have to be deactivated while in 'stealth mode.' That means no using the galley, the recreation room, and at the same time we can't use the weapons and the transporter. I'll also have to deactivate my visual projectors and use audio only."

"So while we're cloaked we'll only be able to talk to you," said Sora, "okay."

Just then Donald walked onto the bridge, "dog gone engine," he muttered, "making me run all the way down there to fix it."

"Actually, Donald," said Kairi, "you could have fixed it from up here."

"It's in the manual," said Aiden.

At that Donald looked he was about to blow his top, but he grabbed his copy of the manual and ripped it into pieces. "Dog gone manual!"

"That won't do any good," said Sidney, "I've got plenty more."

"How exasperating," said Donald again as he slumped into his seat.

"If anyone's interested," said Riku, "we've reached the coordinates where the enemy was before they went into hyperspace."

"Scanning now," said Kairi, "we should have their energy signature locked in soon."

"Am I the only one who's wondering if we have a plan?" Aiden asked, "even if we catch up with the enemy, what are we going to do when we catch them?"

"He's right," said Tess, "we chassed those ship into that portal without a plan. If we're going to fight them, we need to know what we're doing."

"I think we could use the stealth mode to our advantage," said Riku, "we should wait to use it until the last second, then use the cloaking device to get into a position where our weapons can do the most damage. We decloak and attack, destroying as many as we can. Then we jump into hyperspace just enough to move behind the enemy from a different direction and repeat the attack as many times as we can."

"Hit and run tactic," said Tess, "it worked for the rebels on Metamore."

"And it may work for us," said Sora, "okay, we'll do it. As soon as we've got their energy trail locked in, follow them."

"Aye captain!" said everyone.

Just then Aiden had an idea. He imputed a command onto one of the computer stations and there was a loud 'ding!' from the computer.

"What'd you do?" Riku asked.

"I dropped a communications relay," said Aiden, "that way we'll be able to talk with everyone back at Disney Castle."

"That's brilliant!" said Kairi, "they should know what's happened to us."

"But we can't hang around and wait to hear from The King," said Riku, "I say we send a message back to the castle and we'll drop another relay as we chase the enemy. Eventually The King will be able to respond and we'll hear from him along the way."

"Alright, we'll do that," said Sora.

A minute later all was ready and the ship jumped into hyperspace after the enemy armada.

* * *

><p>Several light-years ahead, the armada of Heartless and Hakonian ships cruised through hyperspace towards their destination to carry out their dark purpose.<p>

One of the Hakonian warships was significantly larger than the others and served as the flagship of the dark armada, the flagship being known as _The Night Terror_.

On the bridge of this dark flagship sat three upper-level Hakonians that were somewhat older than the seven we've already met.

The first of the three was tall with black, shoulder length hair and orange eyes that were somewhat bloodshot. He wore a full body orange and black body armor suit and carried a silver and black falchion sword. His apparent age looked no older than 39, but in actuality he was 158. He had the look of a short-tempered man. His name is Orkal Bloodsport.

The second Hakonian was a woman in her mid to late 20's but was actually 99. She had short black hair and pale orange eyes and wore a green and black martial artist outfit. She had the image of a clam yet eager personality. Her name was Ikura Shadewalker

The third Hakonian was a warlock wearing black and gold robes. He had long gray hair and a short beard, while his eyes were orange and silver. He carried a long black and silver staff. He looked to be about 55 but his actual age was his secret alone. Not even the other Hakonians knew how long he was. His name was Grekor Darkeye, who just happened to be the grandfather of Reddik Nightshade.

"How soon until we reach the first target world?" the warrior Hakonian, Orkal Bloodsport, asked in an impatient tone, "I'm ready for action."

"We'll be there in less than an hour," said the martial artist Hakonian, Ikura Shadewalker, "from then it will be a matter of minutes before whatever defenses that world has is overwhelmed, if there are any defenses. After that, it all depends on how long it takes to extract the element, which depends on how much that world has."

"Uridium," said the warlock Hakonian, Grekor Darkeye, "an mineral essential to the Synthesis of the white rings needed to control Nobodies. Those young pups, Erika, Konrad, Rakel, and my whelp of a grandson, Reddik, they combed the worlds near New Hollow Bastion for Uridium and found enough for less than a dozen control rings. Maleficent wishes for enough Uridium to create hundreds of rings."

"Enough for nearly every warrior in the Hakonian race," said Orkal as he grinned in anticipation, "from then the conquest of existence can begin, and the Hakonian Empire shall rise once more."

"But first thing's first," said Ikura, "we need to gather several tones of Uridium. The younglings were only able to find 1,500lbs in one universe alone."

"This universe was chosen because of the reports of high concentrations of Uridium," said Grekor, "we will find what we need, and a little extra to satisfy Maleficent. And if anyone is foolish enough to stand in our way, they will surely meet their doom."

"And we'll doom anyone else nearby just for fun," said Orkal, "each world we visit shall be plunged into darkness as we rape the Uridium from the soil."

Just then a lesser Hakonian handed a report to Grekor, "well, it seems we have some multi-sided competition in this universe. Apparently there's another race on the path of universal domination, a race willing to either wipe out or enslave other races in order to achieve their goals."

"Interesting," said Ikura, "we'll have to make contact with this race of conquerors. We may have something in common. What is the name of this race?"

"Gamilus," said Grekor, "from the world of the same name."

"I'll look forward to making contact with Gamilus," said Ikura.

"What's the other competition?" Orkal asked.

"It appears that The Heartless have been in this universe long before we arrived," said Grekor, "and they have successfully consumed several worlds all on their own."

"So we have another source of Heartless to exploit," said Ikura, "Maleficent wil be pleased to hear this."

"I do not think we should inform Maleficent of this just yet," said Grekor, 'no, there's more to this than it seems."

"What do you mean?" Orkal asked.

"According to the data at hand," said Grekor, "The Heartless in this universe seem to be moving from world to world all on their own without a Villain directing them, as if the creatures themselves are moving with a purpose and a will of their own."

"That's impossible," said Ikrua, "Heartless have no will, nor sense of purpose. They're creatures of pure instinct, always being drawn to more and more hearts in order to corrupt them with darkness. They can't be acting on their own like this. No, there has to be someone or something controlling them."

"Why?" Grekor asked, "why do The Heartless have to be that way?"

"Well, because," said Orkal, "it's what Xehanort and that old fool Ansem discovered when they studied the darkness and stumbled on The Heartless."

"That is true," said Grekor, "but how do we know that Ansem and Xehanort learned all that could be learned about The Heartless? They only saw Heartless as creatures of instinct to be ordered around. But maybe there's the possibility that Heartless can be something more."

"What are you suggesting?" Ikura asked, "that in this universe The Heartless have intelligence? Like the Heartless of Xehanort that used the name of Ansem?"

"Exactly," said Grekor, "that particular Heartless nearly succeeded in opening the door to Kingdom Hearts."

"As did his Nobody, Xemnes," said Ikura, "both were completely out of control, answering only to themselves."

"There's also that hybrid creature that young Nikolai encountered on the world of The Sailor Senshi," said Grekor, "a cross between Heartless and Diamond, Kurayami."

"Another out of control creature," said an irate Ikura, "that willful abomination should never have been created in the first place."

"What's this got to do with the Heartless of this 'verse?" Orkal asked.

"It has everything to do with the heartless of this universe, you muscle-bound buffoon!" said Grekor, "we have the opportunity to observe a completely different breed of Heartless and expand our knowledge of the creatures as a whole. And maybe, just maybe," a mad glint shown in his eye, "prove that the creatures have the potential for intelligence."

"Well, you have fun with your pet projects," said an annoyed Ikura, "I'm going to focus on the real mission; filling our quota of Uridium."

"I'm just here for the killing," said Orkal, "you all do what you want."

"At least we agree on that," said Grekor, "what was Maleficent thinking when she assigned the three of us together?"

"As if that matters," said Ikura, "you play with The Heartless all you want. After we get the Uridium, we're going to find these other would-be masters of this universe and see what can be made of them. Who knows, maybe they'll bring us one step closer to resurrecting our old empire."

"Wouldn't that be something," said Orkal.

"Yes," said Grekor, "something."

* * *

><p>"We're still on their trail," said Kairi as she read the sensor screen, "but we're still no closer to catching the enemy. In fact, the trail is getting a little colder."<p>

"They're getting away," said Sora, "Riku!"

"I'm already pushing the engines as far as they can go," said Riku, "unless you want to blow us up, I'll gladly push the engines into the red."

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Sidney, "it can be done, and we would go faster, but the engines would be critically imbalanced."

"And I have to fix it," said an annoyed Donald.

"We're going to catch them," said Kairi to Sora in a reassuring manner, "they can't remain in Hyperspace forever, no matter how fast their engines are. We'll catch them."

"But how many worlds are they going to attack before we do catch them?" Sora asked, "how many innocent people are going to suffer? How many hearts will be consumed by darkness?"

"I think we may be too late," said a slightly confused Tess as she looked at a sensor display, "I may be reading this wrong, in which case I need to read the manuals again, but I think The Heartless have been here in this universe for a while."

"What?" Sora asked as he and everyone pulled up the sensor readings on their computer screens, "how long?"

"Long enough to do a lot of damage," said Riku, "we've passed several systems where there were worlds, but now only darkness. I'm also picking up almost a dozen," the sensors beeped just then, "correction, we just passed a twelfth dead star."

"The Heartless have done all of this?" Sora asked.

"They've done a lot more, I'll bet," said Tess, "We've only seen just a bit of this universe."

"Speaking of this universe," said Jiminy, "I've also been looking at the sensor logs and I'm convinced that we're in a universe that parallel's our own. We've arrived on the outer edge of The Milky Way galaxy and are heading in the general direction of The Large Magellanic Cloud."

"That's a satellite galaxy that's next to ours," said Kairi, "what do they want out here?"

"I don't know," said Riku as he looked at the sensor readout, "but the trail is getting warmer again."

"We're gaining on them," said Sora, "Sidney, how long can we push the engines into the red without blowing ourselves up?"

"Hang on," said Sidney, "I've calculated that the engine output can exceed the safety parameters for a length of ten minutes with only a 3.91% probability of a fatal engine imbalance. Any longer than that and the chance of an imbalance rises exponentially."

"Just to be safe, let's only go into the red for seven minutes," said Aiden, "if we don't catch up with them by then, we'll think of something else."

"Alright," said Sora, "Riku, take us into the red. Donald, just to be safe, keep an eye on the engine core."

"Rodger!" said both Riku and Donald.

"Here's mud in your eye," said Riku as he pushed the engine pass its safety limit. The energy output display went from orange to red and a warning light began blinking rapidly. The ship's speed then increased dramatically.

"We're definitely catching up with them," said Kairi as the sensors continued to relay data on the enemy trace, "at this rate we'll be able to see the enemy on the long range scanners in four minutes."

"We'll slow down just before then," said Sora, "just outside of their sensor range and go in in stealth mode. Whatever the enemy is up to, we have to stop them before they hurt anyone."

Three and a half minutes later found our heroes slowing the ship down. Riku and the others sighed with relief as the warning light stopped blinking. Fortunately there was no further problems with the engine core.

As they approached the enemy coordinates, Sora ordered the ship to go into stealth mode. The ship's system displays showed that all nonessential systems had shut down and that power had been diverted to the cloaking device. The lights on the bridge dimmed and turned blue, while Sidney's holographic body vanished, but her voice could still be heard over the loudspeakers.

"Stealth Mode activated," she said.

"We're invisible to anyone watching," said Riku.

"We're coming up on the enemy position," said Kairi, "they've stopped in a star system, and are in orbit around a Class M world."

"Class M?" Tess asked.

"Suitable for carbon-based life forms," said Riku, "like us."

"What are they doing?" Sora asked.

"It looks like that big ship with the mining equipment is heading for the planet," said Aiden, "while a whole swarm of Heartless are around it as if to protect it."

"Let's attack now!" said Tess eagerly, "blast them before they do whatever they're about to do!"

"Wait," said Riku, "if we rush into this, we'll just get ourselves killed. Sidney, is there any intelligent life on that planet?"

"Scanning now," said Sidney, "The world is Earth-sized with an atmospheric ratio of 80% Nitrogen, 19% Oxygen and 1% of trace elements. I'm also reading large oceans and two large continents. There is extensive plant-life on land and a whole slew of water-based life forms in the ocean. But there no sign of higher-animal life on land or sea. This world has no intelligent life."

"And no human hearts," said Riku, "Sora, I know you want to stop the enemy, but we need to know what their plan is. I say we stay back so they can't see us, but we can still see them."

"Watch them and see what their plan is," said Aiden, "so we'll be able to stop them the next time."

"Oh, okay," said Sora, "I guess we can do that. Alright, everyone, let's see what the enemy is up to."

The ship exited hyperspace several hundred thousand kilometers from the enemy armada. Riku piloted the ship to a nearby asteroid that offered our heroes a concealed place to observe the enemy in action.

"That big ship is landing on one of the continents," said Kairi, "it's definitely a mining ship."

"But what are they mining for?" Sora asked.

"I don't know," said Riku.

"I'll bet we can learn if we get closer," said Tess, "we're still in stealth mode."

"It's risky," said Sidney, "even in stealth mode, there is still the possibility that the enemy can detect us if we get too close. But if we're going to learn what's going on, we'll have to take such risks."

"Alright then," said Aiden as he rubbed his wrists again, "let's do it!"

"Take us closer, Riku," said Sora, "slowly."

"I'll be extra careful," said Riku.

Slowly but surely the Intrepid Heart crept towards the enemy armada. Closer and closer the ship cruised towards the mass of Heartless and Hakonian ships, stopping every thousand kilometers or so to make sure they hadn't been detected.

But then, when Riku stopped The Intrepid Heart about 10,080 kilometers from the edge of the enemy armada, the mining ship took off from the planet. The continent the mining ship landed was scarred with dozens of deep holes.

"They must have found what they were looking for," said Aiden.

"They're leaving," said Kairi, "I'm reading energy spikes in their engines."

"Can we put a better trace on them?" Sora asked, "a tracking spell or something?"

"On it!" said Donald. He worked his magic and finished just as the mining ship rejoined the armada and the enemy swarm jumped into hyperspace.

"We've got a lock on them!" said Tess, "let's go!"

The ship jumped back into hyperspace and followed the enemy signal. As the ship entered Hyperspace, the lights on the bridge returned to normal and all deactivated systems came back online.

"We can't be in stealth mode while in hyperspace," said Sidney as her holographic body appeared again, "so don't get too close to the enemy."

"Right," said Riku.

"What was it that they were digging for on that planet?" Sora asked.

"I've been analyzing sensor readings from the planet," said Sidney, "there are trace readings of an element I've never seen before," she showed our heroes a hologram of a molecule that had a very complex structure.

"I've never seen anything like that either," said Aiden, "but Maleficent must want it badly enough to send a whole armada to another universe in order to get it."

"We'll figure out what this stuff is later," said Sora, "next time the enemy stops, we attack."

"You won't get any arguments from me," said Tess as she eagerly cracked her knuckles.

* * *

><p>"2.7 tones," said a disappointed Ikura, "only 2.7 tones of Uridium extracted from that dust ball of a world."<p>

"But that's more Uridium that Rakel, Reddik, Erika and Konrad managed to find in the other universe put together," said Grekor, "and we extracted this lode in less than an hour. This first acquisition was a promising start. The next load will be much larger."

"It'd better be worth our time," said Orkal, "and there'd better be people to slaughter."

"I've already selected a world that promises to satisfy us all," said Ikura.

"Excellent," said a grinning Orkal as he gripped the handle of his sword.

Just then one of the lesser Hakonians spoke up, "Commander Ikura? I believe there is a slight situation that requires your attention."

"What is it?" Ikrua asked.

"It could be just a random echo in the sensors," said the Haknonian technician, "but just now there was a reading that possibly could be another ship, one following the armada."

"Someone dares to follow us?" Orkal asked, "who?"

"Maybe someone already had a claim on that world we just visited," said Grekor, "and are chasing us to settle accounts."

"It's a distinct possibility," said Ikura.

"Well if they want us," said Orkal, "they'll soon have more than they asked for."

* * *

><p>"Okay," said Sora, "we'll still use the hit and run plan."<p>

"Strafe them from one side and hit them from another," said Riku.

"I've already calculated the short hyperspace jumps," said Sidney, "it's already programmed in, so all you need to do is hit the button."

"Then we're as ready as we can be," said Sora.

"All we got to do is wait for the enemy to stop," said Aiden.

"Let's just hope that the next world they stop at is one where there is no one there," said Kairi.

"And if there are people there," said Tess, "let's just hope we catch up with the bastards before they hurt anyone."

* * *

><p>"You're about to get your wish, Orkal," said Ikura, "we're coming up on the next target world, and from what our scouting probes told us, there are a lot of innocent people for you to slaughter."<p>

"Outstanding," said Orkal as he drew his sword and licked the edge, "I can hardly wait."

"We'll just don't take too long indulging yourself," said Grekor, "this world has an estimate of only 7 tones of Uridium, we won't be long there."

"Just let me clear away any potential 'problems' with the local population," said Orkal, "then you can get your precious rocks for Maleficent."

* * *

><p>"They're stopping," said Kairi, "long-range sensors detect that they're assuming orbit around a world that has people, a lot of people."<p>

"How soon until we catch up with them?" Sora asked.

"Less than two minutes," said Kairi.

"We're all ready to fight," said Aiden, while Riku, Tess, Donald, Goofy and everyone else nodded.

"Okay," said Sora, "battle stations!"

Exactly two minutes later the ship exited hyperspace, but the arrival point for our heroes wasn't exactly what they expected.

"What the…!" exclaimed Sora and the others as they realized that they had reemerged into normal space right in the middle of the enemy armada, right smack center in the swarm of Heartless.

"Shields up!" exclaimed Sora, "evasive maneuvers! Deploy Teeny Ships! All weapons fire!" It was at that exact second that the swarms of Heartless began attacking the ship.

* * *

><p>"What in the seven hells?" Ikura asked as she saw a warning flash on a display screen, "something just popped out of hyperspace right in the middle of the Heartless swarm."<p>

"How did that happen?" Orkal asked as he and Grekor walked over to the display screen.

"There must have been a subspace distortion that interfered with their FTL computations," said Grekor, "exiting hyperspace is just as important as entering. Poor devils, they've stumbled onto their dooms."

"Wait a second," said Ikura, "it looks like they're fighting back against the Heartless swarm. Yes, they have laser cannons, missiles and torpedoes, and some of them are using Fire, Blizzard and Thunder spells."

"What manner of ship is this?" Grekor asked. He commanded the display screen to zoom in, "why, that's a Gummy ship, the type those miserable whelps used in The Realms of Light."

"How did a Gummy ship get into this universe?" Orkal asked, "wait, you don't suppose that these are The Keyblade Wielders, don't you?"

"The odds of these fools being the enemies of Maleficent are too high to count," said Grekor, "but it appears that way."

"Then this is our chance to do what those young fools failed to do," said Ikura, "destroy The Keyblade Wielders! Forget the Uridium! Maleficent will reward us doubly if we destroy Sora and his pathetic friends! Signal all warships and Heartless to attack! Crush them!"

* * *

><p>"We're completely surrounded!" shouted Tess as she directed varius spells to the weapons, which Goofy targeted and shot at the attacking Heartless.<p>

"How'd we get in this revolting predicament anyway?" Donald asked.

"My sensors detected a subspace distortion that occurred just as we exited hyperspace," said Sidney, "It's my fault, I should have warned you about such celestial occurrences."

"We'll worry about that later," said Sora, "Riku, can you get us clear of the swarm?"

"I'm trying!" said Riku as he banked the ship left and right in order to shake off the attacking creatures, "but everywhere we turn, there's more and more."

"What about the Haknoian ships?" Aiden asked, "aren't they going to attack us!"

"They're turning to attack us now," said Kairi.

"I've got an idea," said Tess, "Riku, "head for the nearest Hakonian warship as fast as we can! We're going to blow it up and use it to clear a path out of this mess!"

"Do it!" said Sora.

"It's better than just getting squashed by Heartless," said Aiden, "go for it!"

"What the heck," said Riku as he changed course for the nearest Hakonian warship, "immortality is overrated."

* * *

><p>"What are they doing now?" Orkal asked, "are those brats actually trying to attack us? Have they lost it!"<p>

"They must be planning something desperate," said Ikura, "signal all warships to maintain distance. Do not let that Gummy ship to get within attack range. Let the Heartless finish them off."

"It's too late," said Grekor, "that little ship is faster than it looks."

* * *

><p>"Hakonian warship within range!" said Kairi.<p>

"Lock all weapons and fire!" said Sora.

"Firing now!" said Goofy as he pressed the trigger buttons. The laser cannons and missile launchers on _The Intrepid Heart _and its four Teeny Ships sent their deadly payload at the enemy warship. The combined energy, projectile and magical attack overwhelmed the Haknonian ships' shields and internal systems, causing the ship to explode.

The projecting debris from the destroyed warship also destroyed hundreds of nearby Heartless and damaged two other Hakonian warships, forcing them to slow down and withdraw from the battle, creating an opening in which Riku drove the ship through into clear space.

"Okay," said Sora, "were out of the swarm."

"But now we've got all those remaining warships and the rest of the Heartless swarm chasing after us," said Aiden, "do we have a plan B?"

"We can still jump behind and strafe them," said Riku, "Can we?"

"We should double check the hyperspace computer," said Sidney, "just to be safe. That subspace distortion may have damaged the software a bit."

"In the meantime," said Kairi, "let's lead the enemy away from that planet."

"Oh, there won't be any trouble with that," said Aiden as he pointed at a tactical display, "they all seem very eager to make our acquaintance."

Sora pressed a button that showed the tactical display on the main screen. In the center of the screen was a blue blinking dot that represented The Intrepid Heart. Chasing the ship was a large mass of blinking dots that represented the enemy swarm and Hakonian warships. The red mass was about 10 centimeters from the Intrepid Heart.

"On this tactical display," said Sidney, "one centimeter represents 1 kilometer."

"They're gaining on us!" said Tess, "9 kilometers and closing!"

"How soon until we can get back into hyperspace?" Sora asked.

"I'm still checking then engines for faults," said Sidney, "as well as making sure that we don't encounter any more subspace distortions; it'll be at least another ten minutes before I'm sure it's safe."

"We'll they're going to catch us a lot sooner than that," said Tess, "Seven kilometers and closing."

Just then the communications terminal beeped, "we're receiving a message from the enemy," said Kairi.

"Well let's not be rude," said Aiden, "let's hear what the bastards have to say."

Kairi pressed the audio button and our heroes heard the enemy speaking to them.

"This is Grekor Darkeye, High Warlock of the Hakonian race. I am addressing the young fools who dare to stand against the darkness, the Keyblade Wielders. You younglings have enjoyed a successful campaign up until this point. But what you fail to realize is that the seven Hakonians you've faced so far were merely children in the eyes of the Hakonian race.

"I am of a different breed than the seven whelps you fought and defeated. My comrades and I are more mature and experienced, and we have been tasked by the true mistress of all evil, Maleficent, to traverse to this universe and take what the great one desires. Just what that desire is, I won't bother to say.

"But I will say that you fools have doomed yourselves by meddling in affairs that do not concern you."

"Can we respond?" Riku asked, "or is this a recording?"

"No, it's live," said Kairi as she pushed a reply button, "you're on the air, Riku."

"Thanks," said Riku. "Okay, Grekor Darkeye, can you hear me? Or do we need to adjust something."

"I can hear you loud and clear, brat," said Grekor, "do I have the honor of addressing the traitor Riku?"

"The only one I betrayed was myself," said Riku, "but that's in the past, and no good ever came from getting messed up over the past. Anyway, it becomes our business when The Heartless and you Hakonians invade other realms and threaten innocent people. There must have been hundreds of thousands, millions even, of people on that world you were about to attack, and for what?"

"I told you that it was none of your business," said Grekor, "and don't worry about that world you though you saved. After we atomize you brats, we'll come back to that world, and my friend Orkal will have all that he can stand of carnage."

"You Hakonians are insane!" said Kairi, "All of you!"

"Flattery will get you nowhere," said a female voice on the other end of the connection.

"All too true, my dear Ikura," said Grekor, "all too true."

"You think you guys can beat us?" Sora asked, "well get this. We've beaten those seven Hakonians and we've beaten a lot of other Villains. We'll beat you without a doubt!"

"We shall see," said Grekor, "we shall see." With that the connection broke.

"Well we're certainly in for it now," said Tess, "the enemy is less than a kilometer behind us and still closing."

"Another five minutes at least," said Sidney, "I'm going as fast as I can, but if there is a problem with the engines that isn't fixed, we all could die."

"We all understand, Sidney," said Sora, "and thanks for trying."

"At least we'll take a lot of the creeps with us," said Tess, "who knows, we might still win this."

"Of course we're going to win!" said Sora, while Donald, Goofy and Kairi nodded in agreement, "we have to!"

"One thing I've learned from traveling with Sora and the gang," said Aiden to Tess, "is that things have a way of working out, somehow. Trust me, something will happen that'll turn things around for us."

Just then the sensors beeped again.

"See?" Aiden asked, "what did I tell you?"

"There's another ship out there," said Kairi as she looked at the sensor data, "and it's a big one, really big."

"How big?" Tess asked.

"Big as a World War 2 battleship," said Sora as he looked at the display, "bigger even, and it's coming right for us!"

The tactical display now showed a large orange blip that represented the new enemy ship.

"Great," said Tess, "dead from behind and in front."

"Wait," said Kairi, "we're receiving a message from the new ship, text only though."

"Well don't keep us in suspense," said Aiden, "what is it?"

Kairi then read the message, "'Get out of the way, now!' that's what it says."

"The other ship is within visual range," said Sidney, "I'm pulling up the image now."

The forward screen showed a large starship that looked a log like a WW2 battleship, right down to the large caliber cannons and smokestack. But the ship have a large sensor array atop the bridge tower and had what appeared to be a second bridge underneath the hull. Also, the cannons had been converted to energy-based weapons and there was a large hole right on the bow, a hole that looked to be a large cannon.

"What kind of ship is that?" Riku asked.

"I don't know," said Kairi, "but from that message, I think they're trying to warn us."

"Maybe they're going to attack The Heartless," said Sora.

"Or maybe they're powering up a really, really big energy blast," said Aiden as he looked at the sensor display.

"I really think we should get out of here!" said Sora as everyone saw on the forward screen that the new ship was indeed powering up for a massive energy blast. A bright light was growing in the hole in the bow of the ship, a hole that indeed was the barrel of an energy cannon.

"Riku!" shouted Sora.

"On it!" said Riku as he drove the ship up and to the left, just as the other ship fired its weapon. The massive blast hurtled through space towards the enemy swarm and obliterated nearly half of the space-bourn Heartless, while destroying two Hakonian warships and damaging three more.

"Wow!" said our heroes all together.

* * *

><p>"What in the unholy darkness was that!" exclaimed Orkal as he, Ikura and Grekor watched the destruction of their forces.<p>

"There's another ship out here," said Ikura as she looked at a sensor display, "a ship that did all of that with just one blast."

"We can't fight that kind of power without knowing more," said Grekor, "I suggest we withdraw for now."

"Are you kidding?" exclaimed an irate Orkal, "you want to run away! We can take these losers!"

"These losers just decimated our Heartless forces and destroyed two of our warships," said Ikura, "you want to die yourself?"

"Uh…no," said Orkal.

"Then let's get the bloody hell out of here already!" said Ikura, "before that ship fires again. There are other worlds with Uridium in this universe, so let's go."

"Signal all ships to withdraw," said Grekor to the Hakonian at the communications terminal, "make for the next target world. Then patch me through to the Keyblade Wielders."

* * *

><p>"It's the Hakonians again," said Kairi as the communications screen beeped again.<p>

"Put them on," said Sora.

"Enjoy this brief respite, Keyblade Brats," said Grekor, "for the next time we meet, it will be the last."

"That's what they all say," said Aiden.

"They're leaving," said Tess, "all the Heartless and Hakonian ships are jumping into hyperspace."

"Should we follow?" Riku asked.

"We've still got that trace spell on them," said Sora, "we'll catch up with them later. Right now I want to meet these guys with the really cool ship."

"They're signaling us again," said Kairi, "another text. 'You really know how to wait until the last moment. Any longer and you would have been destroyed by The Wave Motion Gun as well.'"

"'Wave Motion Gun?'" Tess asked.

"That's what it said," remaked Kairi.

"Tell them that we're grateful for their help," said Sora, "and ask them what they are doing out here?"

Kairi sent the message and a reply was soon received. "'We were stopping here between Warps and detected the battle on radar, so we engaged the enemy. Is everyone on your ship alright?'"

"We're fine," said Sora, "is everything okay with you?"

"'All is well with us. Would it be possible for our two crews to meet face to face? If so then our ships can dock and we can say hello in the flesh.'"

"I don't see a reason why not," said Riku, "they could have destroyed us without sending that warning first."

"But we shouldn't take them lightly," said Sidney, "that energy blast had enough power to destroy a small moon. Oh, and the engines are all okay. We can jump into hyperspace when ready."

"We'll keep that in mind," said Aiden, "and we'll be careful."

"I'll tell them that we'll come right over," said Kairi.

"Let's all be friendly but cautious," said Riku as he piloted the Intrepid Heart towards the other ship, "they did save us, but things could still turn ugly."

"Right," said Sora.

It wasn't long before _The Intrepid Heart_ got close enough the other ship for our heroes to see that it was indeed based on a WW2 battle ship, but retrofitted for spaceflight and combat.

"That is one awesome ship," said an impressed Sora.

"I wonder what they think of our ship?" Kairi asked.

"They'd better have good things to say," said Sidney, "as the brain of _The Intrepid Heart_, I'm the most advanced A.I. program in the realms, and my body is super-califragilistic-expialidocious."

"I'm sure they'll love you," said Riku.

"Wait a second," said Kairi, "Sora, do you see the name on that ship? Is that Kanji or am I going crazy?"

"It is Kanji," said Sora, "it has to be, or we both have space madness."

"We can't all be going crazy," said Riku as he looked at the Kanji writing on the other starship, "not now anyway."

"What's Kanji?" Tess asked.

"It's the writing style of Japan," said Aiden, "where Sora, Riku and Kairi are from more or less. It's easy enough to read and write once you get the hang of it," he looked at the writing on the other ship, "I think that's the ships' name, _Yamato_."

"It does say _Yamato_," said a dumbfounded Riku, "and if my history is right, then this starship was named after the largest, most powerful battleship ever built on Earth. No, it's not a naming, it's as if they took the wreck of the _Yamato _and rebuilt her for space."

"What are you talking about?" a confused Tess asked.

"I'm confused as well," said Kairi as Riku brought the Intrepid Heart close to the other starship, the Yamato, "but we're about to get some answers, one way or another."

**The end of chapter 2.**

Next chapter our heroes meet the crew of _The Yamato_ and learn their story. Elsewhere, the three Hakonians encounter the race that seeks to dominate all live in this universe. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!


	3. Chapter 3: The Last Hope for Earth

Last time found our heroes aboard the Intrepid Heart chasing an armada of Heartless and Hakonian ships into another universe. The Hakonians, Orkal, Ikura and Grekor, were sent by Maleficent to obtain the rare element Uridium, an essential item in the synthesis of the rings that can control Nobodies.

Sora and the others chased the dark armada to a world inhabited by people and stopped the enemy from attacking. But our heroes got more than they bargained for when the enemy began chasing them. But then salvation came from an unexpected source; a WW2 battleship retrofitted for spaceflight fired a massive energy blast at the enemy, significantly reducing their forces, forcing them to withdraw.

As Riku brought The Intrepid Heart close to the other starship so our heroes could meet the other crew, our heroes saw that the other ship was named Yamato, at first thought to be named after the largest and most powerful battleship of all time. But then Sora and the others realized that this might just be _the _Yamato, reborn for space. 'Nuff said, on with the show!

**Chapter 3: The Last Hope for Earth**

_The Intrepid Heart _docked with the large ship, _The Yamato_. "We just need to wait for the pressure to equalize on both sides," said Aiden, "shouldn't be much longer."

"Just because these people saved our sorry hides," said Tess, "doesn't mean we should let our guards down. This still could be a trap."

"We're going to be careful," said Riku, "but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be civil. We're going to keep our eyes open and our Keyblades on standby, but we'll be friendly nonetheless."

"Well I'm ready to meet these guys," said Kairi.

"Same here," said Sora.

"If I could make one small point," said Sidney, "I am capable of keeping an eye on the ship, while going with you onto the other ship," a side panel opened, revealing a badge-sized portable holographic projector. Sidney then picked it up and pinned it to her sleeve. Her image then flickered, then solidified, "there, I told Cid that watching all seven seasons of Star Trek Voyager was a good idea."

The pressure on the airlock equalized and the doors opened. On the other side were three people. The first was a man in his early 20's wearing a white uniform with red lines. He had brown hair and brown eyes. From what Sora and the others could sense, this was a man with a short but more often than not controlled temper mixed with a high level of confident adventurism.

The second person was a woman in her early 20's with shoulder-length blond hair and brown eyes. She wore a yellow uniform with black lines. Our heroes could sense that this was a woman willing to put her life on the line for her friends and comrades, as well as face any adversity in order to get the job done.

The third person was clearly the captain of the ship, judging by his white-captain's hat. He was in his late 60's with a full beard and wore a black and orange coat with white trousers. This was a man, our heroes sensed, that carried a huge weight of responsibility on his shoulders and in his heart, but had the strength of heart and body to see it through to the end, whatever that end may be.

"I am Captain Okita," said the old man, "commander of _The Yamato_."

"Sora of the Keyblade," said our favorite hero, "captain of _The Intrepid Heart_. These are my friends and fellow travelers."

"You certainly look like you've come a long way," said the man in the white and red uniform.

"I could say the same of you people," said Riku.

"We are a long way from home," said the woman in the yellow and black uniform.

"As are we," said Kairi.

"That weapon you used was awe inspiring," said Tess, "that huge…energy…thing."

"It sure is," said the man in the white and red uniform, "Kodai Mamoru, Battle Chief and head gunner of _The Yamato_. I'm the one who fired The Wave Motion Gun."

"Yuki Mori," said the woman, "chief radar technician and head of planetary exploration."

"I believe we all have stories to exchange," said Captain Okita, "would you care to dine with us this evening?"

"We'd love to," said Sora, while Riku, Kairi and the others nodded in agreement.

"Aren't you gonna say something about how weird we are?" Donald asked suspiciously.

"We get that a lot," said Goofy.

"We're the first humans to venture into deep space," said Yuki, "we've learned to expect the unexpected."

"They're alright in my book," said Aiden.

"You're not so bad yourselves," said Kodai. At that everyone laughed a bit.

Captain Okita then escorted our heroes through the many levels of _The Yamato_. The corridors had moving walkways that made getting to and from different parts of the ship easier, as well as elevators and emergency descent chutes.

Sora and the others were then shown to the captain's private dinning room where they met several other senior officers of _The Yamato_.

Daisuke Shima was the chief navigator and helmsman. He and Kodai were clearly long-term friends. He had short black hair and wore a white and green uniform. Our heroes sensed that Shima had some confidence issues that he was dealing with as best as he can.

Science officer Shiro Sanada clearly had a logical, dedicated and earnest mind that was full of ideas. He wore a white and blue uniform and had short black hair.

The chief medical officer for the Yamato was Dr. Sakezo Sado, a brilliant practitioner of medicine but also a man who enjoyed life as much as he could. He was squat, balding and wore glasses. He was also an alcoholic; his flushed face and the sake bottle in his hands giving that fact away.

Chief Engineer Hikozaemon Tokugawa was clearly a man of experience. He was tall with balding white hair and a short beard, wearing a white and red uniform.

Rounding up the group was squat, humanoid robot with a red outer body and moved on treadmills on his legs. This was Analyzer, an machine capable of emulating human thought and emotions, though he spoke like a fully robotic automaton. Analyzer was basically a moving supercomputer with a heart.

"Those moves you used against those…things," said Shima to Riku, "those Heartless you called, impressive."

"The ship did most of the work," Riku said modestly, "I just told her what do to."

"That's true," said Shima, "but my job is harder. Not only do I have to pilot The _Yamato_ through normal space, I also have to make sure that everything goes right when we Warp."

"How does that work?" Aiden asked, "our ship uses mater and anti-mater to create energy powerful enough to generate an opening into hyperspace, which we use to travel incredibly large distances faster than light," he looked at Sora and the others, "I figured out the concept easily enough."

"It took us a while," said Sora.

"So how does Warping work?" Aiden asked the Yamato crew, "I've heard of the term, but I think it's different for your ship."

"Our engine does work differently," said Chief Tokugawa, "our power supply uses the vacuum of space to create tachyon energy, giving us a nearly infinite source of fuel."

"The Wave Motion Engine operates on the principle that time and space are like waves," said Sanada, "the power of our engine catapults us from the crest of one wave to another, allowing us to traverse over a thousand light years in the blink of an eye, in real time that is, but from our point of view, a Warp seems to take a long time."

"But we have to be very careful about achieving a Warp," said Shima, "there are so many things that have to be timed perfectly. Any miscalculation could prove disastrous."

"How bad could it be?" Aiden asked.

"The least worse case scenario would be that nothing would happen," said Sanada, "that the engine would fail to Warp and we'd be still where we were. On the other hand, the engine could explode, destroying us and a large part of space in the process."

"It could create a chain reaction that could, in theory, rip the whole universe apart," said a slightly nervous Shima, "and Dr. Sado wonders why I have Acid Reflux."

"Forgive my intrusion," said Sidney as she walked over, "but I've thought over that worse case scenario, and I must point out that the odds of destroying the universe due to a faulty Warp are highly improbable, somewhere in the range of 12,738,994,921,358.989 to one against.

"A more likely end result would be that the engine does explode, but the destructive force would only create a hole in the fabric of reality the exact size of Belgium."

"That is illogical," said Analyzer, "how can you possibly predict the exact dimensions of a hole in reality when you haven't learned the capabilities of our engines?"

"I've been scanning your ship since we got within range," said Sidney, "I'm impressed by the energy output of your engine, and based on those statistics, combined with a while slew of other factors, I've arrived at the conclusion that a Belgium-sized hole in reality would be the end result."

"Nonsense!" said Analyzer, "the probable outcome would be a hole the size of Luxembourg. Your calculations are defective, which is not surprising considering that they are made by an inferior mind."

"Inferior my digital eye!" snapped Sidney, "I am the most advanced artificial intelligence in the Realms of Light, which is a hell of a lot more advanced than you, you rust bucket with vacuum tubes for brains!"

"I am not a rust bucket," said Analyzer, "and I do not have vacuum tubes! I am the most advanced robotic life form on Earth, with a multitronic mind capable of analyzing all forms of data, where as you are merely light and shadow."

"You think you're so advanced!" an irate Sidney asked, "I was created by the greatest computer program in my universe, where as you are clearly ready to be recycled!"

"I am a genius!" insisted Analyzer, "and you need to be reprogrammed!"

"I'll reprogram you, toss pot!" snapped Sidney.

"Oh for crying out loud!" said Kairi, "if you two are going to get into a fight, then you both can switch off for all I care."

"At least I'm capable of going into sleep mode," said Sidney to Analyzer, "what about you, can you turn yourself on and off?"

"I am fully self-sufficient," said Analyzer, "I do not need sleep."

"And yet you insist you're superior," said Sidney, "you're going to run down."

"No I won't," said Analyzer, "where as you are due to short circuit!"

"I'll short circuit you!" snapped Sidney.

"Stop it, both of you!" said Yuki, "this is supposed to be a happy occasion where two crews are getting to know each other. Analyzer, I order you to apologize to Sidney."

"And I order you to apologize to Analyzer," said Riku to Sidney.

"Yes, sir," Sidney pouted as she stubbornly crossed her arms, "but I don't have to like it."

"Anything for you, Ms. Yuki," said Analyzer. It was as if the robot was showing genuine affection. It then spoke to Sidney, "I apologize for insulting you."

"And I'm sorry I called you a rust bucket and a toss pot," said Sidney in a stubborn tone, "but that's all you'll get out of me."

"Fair enough," said Yuki. She then spoke to Sora and the others, "now, if it's okay, would you please tell us what you're doing out here?"

"I'd like to know that myself," said Kodai.

"We'd like to know what you're doing out here as well," said Sora while Riku, Kairi and the others nodded in agreement, "but our story first."

And so once again our heroes explained what Heartless are all about, as well as a brief rundown about the Villains of their universe.

"We don't know exactly why Maleficent sent those Heartless and Hakonians into this universe," said Riku, "but whatever it is that they're looking for, this weird element, it's for some dark purpose without a doubt."

"We've figured as much," said Captain Okita, "for the past few days we've seen one star system after another overrun by darkness, as well as seen hints of creatures made of living darkness."

"A scientific impossibility," said slightly tipsy Dr. Sado, "but the creatures are real alright!" he then took another swig of sake.

"The Heartless are everywhere alright," said Sora in a serious tone, "a wise man once told us that as long as there is darkness in the hearts of people, then The Heartless will always be a threat."

"Well, we've got a threat of our own to deal with, other than Heartless," said Kodai, "we're on a really important mission."

"We're the last hope Earth has," said Yuki in a serious tone, "if we fail, then our world and all of Humanity will be destroyed forever."

"How'd that happen?" Tess asked.

"It's a long story," said Captain Okita, "I'm sure that in your universe it is a different year, but in this one it is 2,200 AD. Ten years ago the solar system came under attack by an alien race, Gamilus. No one knew where the aliens came from or why they were attacking us, but Gamilus overwhelmed the outposts and colonies on the outer planets of the solar system.

"They established a base on Pluto and began bombarding Earth with radioactive meteorites. Within three years nearly all life on the surface of Earth was destroyed. Every nation was devastated and every city was rendered uninhabitable. All plant and animal life was wiped out by the destructive force of the meteorites and the radioactive fallout. The oceans and ice caps were boiled away, leaving little if any water on the surface. Our Earth is horrifyingly different from yours.

"Humanity survived by building cities miles underground, but the radiation is slowly creeping down. It's been determined that the radiation will kill everyone on Earth in 275 days."

"Good gods!" said a shocked and appalled Aiden.

"I can think of worst things to say," remarked Riku, while Sora, Kairi and Tess nodded in agreement.

"Why did they do it?" Kairi asked, "what kind of monstrous race would destroy a world without provocation?"

"We didn't know why Gamilus attacked Earth," said Sanada, "not until we actually captured one of them."

"It turns out that the Gamilus race isn't that different from humans," said a more sober sounding Dr. Sado, "their DNA differs from humans by a very, very narrow percentage. The only major differences are that they have blue skin and need radiation to live."

"That's where the current theory comes," said Captain Okita, "Gamilus, who's leader is one Lord Desler, wishes to colonize Earth and needs to make it radioactive first."

"That's just sick!" said an outraged Sora, "this Desler sounds like a real monster."

"There must be millions of uninhabited planets in this galaxy alone," said Riku, "why pick on Earth? Why not just choose an empty world or a moon and make that radioactive?"

"We still don't know why they choose Earth," said Kodai, "but one thing's certain, they're absolutely ruthless, especially Lord Desler."

"Everyone onboard the Yamato has lost someone to the viciousness of Gamilus," said Captain Okita in a solemn tone, "including my only son."

"And my parents and older brother!" said an angry Kodai, "I hate them as a whole. Individually we could get along, but as long as they want us dead, I can't live with them."

"But there is hope for Earth and humanity," said Yuki, "our mission."

"A few months ago a long-range ship arrived in the solar system," said Shima, "onboard was an alien princess from Iscandar, a world in the Large Magellanic Cloud, located 148,000 light years from Earth."

"The woman died when her ship crashed on Mars," said Kodai, "Shima and I were there on a training mission, and we brought her body and a message capsule back to Earth."

"The capsule had a message from the queen of Iscandar, Starsha," said Captain Okita, "Starsha told us that her world has a device capable of removing all radioactive contamination from Earth and can restore the world to the way it was."

"The Cosmo Cleaner D," said Sanada.

"The message also had plans for an engine capable of Faster Than Light Travel," said Chief Tokugawa, "The Wave Motion Engine, as well as plans for using the engine to power our main weapon."

"The Wave Motion Gun," said Kodai.

"An awesome gun," said Tess, "so, you guys left Earth for Iscandar?"

"That was over 90 days ago," said Shima, "we're supposed to be almost halfway to Iscandar by now, but Gamilus and a lot of other factors have left us behind schedule."

"There's still time to get to Iscandar and back before it's too late," said Sanada, "but not much. We've stopped to help you because we've determined that these Heartless are as great a threat to Earth as Gamilus, even worse. If we can stop them somehow, then we have to try."

"Even if it means sacrificing precious time?" Riku asked. "if I were in your shoes, I would have ignored The Heartless and kept going."

"We can definitely make up the time," said Shima, "_The Yamato_ can Warp 1,200 light years at a time. We've been Warping twice a day, a total of 2,400 light years, but we can add a third Warp if needed."

"The engine does need time to cool down and recharge," said Chief Tokugawa, "at least eight hours minimal, preferably 10 or 12."

"1,200 light years in the blink of an eye," said Sora, "Sidney, how long does it take for our ship to…"

"Not nearly as quick," said Sidney, "If our ship and _The Yamato _were to have a race, they'd lap us easily."

"Cool," said Kairi, "did you really build the ship out of the original _Yamato_? The WW2 battleship?"

"Our _Yamato _was inspired by the original _Yamato_," said Chief Tokugawa, "but if you're asking if we retrofitted the original ship for spaceflight, then no, we didn't. Instead we used the wreck of the original _Yamato _as a disguise for this ship."

"This _Yamato _was originally intended to be an ark," said Captain Okita, "a last effort to preserve humanity. At the time there was almost no hope of stopping the radioactive bombardment; our last attempt to drive the invaders from the solar system failed miserably. Out of a fleet of dozens of warships, only the ship I commanded survived. That engagement was the one where my son and Kodai's brother died."

"But we paid them back double," said a vindictive sounding Kodai, "on the way out of the solar system, we fought Gamilus several times and defeated them each time."

"They used a rather peculiar weapon when we fought them at Pluto," said Sanada, "an energy cannon that used reflective satellites to direct the beam at us. An ingenious concept I'll admit, one that we could use later when there's time to elaborate."

"I think we've had enough small talk," said Captain Okita, "we've said before that The Heartless are a threat just as great as Gamilus, and now we've seen that these Hakonians are an equally terrible threat, so now it comes to it; should _The Yamato _attempt to stop these Hakonians from taking what they want? Should we fight this new enemy with our new friends? Or should _The Yamato _continue on her way towards Iscandar?"

There was a moment of silence as the senior officers of _The Yamato _thought about Captain Okita's words. It was Kodai who spoke, "I think I speak for us all when I say that we shouldn't ignore these Hakonians. Their invasion of our universe is a threat to Earth, and they should be treated no different than Gamilus."

"Sooner or later both The Heartless and the Hakonians would come to Earth," said Sanada, "even if we get the Cosmo Cleaner D in time to save our world, we'll have to deal with these other threats. I'd rather fight these new enemies now while we're out here, than wait for them to come to us."

"I agree," said Chief Tokugawa, "we can make up the time if we're careful."

"I may be able to help with that," said Sidney, "I believe that with some effort, I can provide you with the means, temporarily that is, to increase the efficiency of the Wave Motion Engine. This will only be a short boost, since I'm not completely sure about the compatibility of our different technologies, but I'm certain that the engine can be boosted by a minimum of 38%, possibly 39.5%"

"_The Yamato _would then be able to traverse between 1,656 and 1674 light years per Warp," said Analyzer.

"That would definitely make up for lost time," said a grinning Shima, "and if the engine can be boosted by 40%, or dare I hope, 45%…"

"Between 1,680 and 1,740 light years per Warp," said Analyzer.

"When can you start?" a smiling Sanada asked Sidney.

"I'm already working on the algorithms," said Sidney.

"I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship," said Kairi, "in more ways than one."

"I think you're right," said Sora.

* * *

><p>"Master Grekor," said one of the lesser Hakonians, "we've made contact with planet Gamilus. Their high command is arranging for their leader, Lord Desler, to speak with us."<p>

"Outstanding," said Grekor. He then spoke to his two comrades, "always deal with the top, my friends, never settle for the middleman."

"I never liked talking," said an annoyed Orkal, "when are we going to attack those Keyblade brats? They've got to pay for ruining our mining operation."

"Did your mother drop you on your head when you were an infant?" Ikura asked, "you seem to be lacking short-term memory. You saw what that one starship with that big laser did to the armada. We lost two whole ships and three more were damaged. In short, we've lost three ships and had five damaged because of that engagement."

"Each of our warships only require a crew of 100," said Grekor, "but we only managed to rescue a handful of the destroyed ship's crew. Of 300 Hakonian starship operators, only 29 made it to their escape pods, that's 271 dead. Add the 34 that were killed on the damaged ships, that makes 305 of our people murdered for no reason."

"Add that to the loss of all those Heartless," said Ikura, "leaves us at a serious disadvantage if we have to fight again any time soon."

"Which is why we should seek out an alliance with the local villains," said Grekor, "if the Gamilus race is as powerful as our sources say they are, then we should at least try to see if we can use them."

"Have Gamilus distract the brats and that other ship," said Ikura, "while we mine the Uridium and try to get the local Heartless to obey us."

"We can only try," said Grekor.

"Master Grekor," said the lesser Hakonian, "we have an open link with Gamilus now."

"Put it on the main screen," said Grekor, "let us speak with this Lord Desler."

The forward screen flickered and cleared to reveal and elaborately decorated throne room. Dozens of blue-skinned men wearing green and black uniforms stood around a stepped throne, where a blue-skinned man with short blond hair, sat.

One of the blue-skinned men, whom happened to be bald, stepped forward and spoke, "lowly travelers form outside the universe, you have the fortunate honor to speak with the overlord of Gamilus, the true master of the universe, the terror of the stars, the…"

"Oh just skip it, Vice President Hiss," said the blond man on the throne in an nonchalant tone, "these people have obviously come a long way and gone through a lot of trouble. The least we can do is show them some respect."

"Uh…yes, Lord Desler," said the bald man, Hiss, in an uncertain but placating tone. He bowed and backed away.

The man on the throne, Lord Desler, stood up and waked forward towards the camera on the other end of the link, "as my toadying adjutant said, I am Lord Desler."

The three Hakonians then gave their names, "we have come a long way, Lord Desler," said Grekor, "and I wish to express the fact that neither we Hakonians, or our mistress, Maleficent, wish to interfere with your affairs."

"We only seek a rare element that our mistress desires," said Ikura, "an element that, for any other use, is useless."

"I'll be the judge of that," said Lord Desler, "as it turns out, as the leader of my people, my affairs are the affairs of all of Gamilus."

"I'd be more than happy to send you the details concerning Uridium," said Grekor. He nodded to a lesser Hakonian, who then transmitted the data to the other world, "we only need a few hundred tones of it, then we will be on our way."

"We need more than that," Orkal whispered to Ikura.

"But Lord Desler doesn't know that," whispered Ikrua, "and what he doesn't know doesn't hurt him."

On the screen, a lesser Gamilusian handed a printout to Lord Desler, who then looked at it, "the wonders of subspace communications. It allows me to coordinate my forces throughout space and the instantaneous transmission of data, an essential key to ruling an empire."

"This is true," said Grekor, "now, as to the second reason for seeking your great nation out, I'm sure your forces have encountered worlds and entire stars that have been consumed by darkness."

"The subject has come up in reports from time to time," said Lord Desler, "our scientists have determined that the worlds were attacked by, impossible as it seems, creatures made of living darkness."

"I can assure you, my lord, that The Heartless are as real as the ground you are standing on," said Grekor, "the creatures can be a great asset to your dreams of empire building."

"An interesting thought," said Lord Desler, "I shall have to take it under consideration with my military counsel. Now, is that all you wish to talk about? Of course not, you didn't go through all this trouble to speak with me directly just to say hello.

"Let me guess," he smiled viciously, "your mining operations have hit a snag."

"Two snags actually," said Ikura, "the first is a problem that we can take care of ourselves, normally. Our enemies, The Keyblade Wielders, have followed us from our universe and attacked our armada. Many of our people and thousands of Heartless were destroyed in the engagement."

"The second problem was that big ship with the big laser gun," said Orkal.

At that Lord Desler's fist closed in annoyance, yet his expression remained calm, "ah, yes, _The Yamato_."

"You know of them?" Ikura asked.

"Indeed I do," said lord Desler, "The crew of _The Yamato _is made up of barbarians, ingenious barbarians, but barbarians none the less, barbarians that are in need of extermination."

"I couldn't agree more," said Ikura, "any race that cannot be of use is not worthy of existing."

"All too true," said Lord Desler, "yet these particular barbarians have earned a level of respect from me. Against all odds they defeated the forces I sent to their solar system. Not even one of the most advanced weapon systems our scientists devised could stop _The Yamato _and her crew."

"Just how serious are these lowly humans?" Orkal asked, "in our universe, only a handful of that race have the potential to be dangerous. The rest of the animals are hardly worth our time."

"Let me put it succinctly," said Lord Desler in a serious tone, "it is essential to the survival of Gamilus as a race that the humans be exterminated. Their world is already doomed, but that ship is the true threat. _The Yamato _and must not reach Iscandar and return to restore their world.

"I already have considered several of my top generals and admirals to assign to the task of destroying _The Yamato_; it's simply a question of picking the right one for the job."

"I believe I have an alternative solution," said Grekor, "one that would solve both our problems."

"I'm listening," said Lord Desler.

"You want _The Yamato _and her crew expunged from the face of the universe," said Grekor, "my people and our mistress want The Keyblade Wielders dead. I say that Gamilus and Hakonians work together to destroy our enemies. If you can loan some of your forces to us, then I guarantee that our combined enemies will be destroyed."

Lod Desler then signaled to one of his men standing nearby. The two of them had a whispered conversation for about 30 seconds before Desler spoke again, "I can spare you a sizable taskforce that you will find most pleasing. But before I can commit my forces, I wish to know, will this be a joint operation? Or will you Hakonians try to lead the mission yourselves, only to have my people do all the dirty work?"

"I cannot personally speak for my two comrades," said Grekor, "we're not exactly the most agreeable types, the three of us that is. But I can say for myself that I will gladly cooperate with whomever you choose to lead your forces, that this will be a democratic operation."

"I'll also cooperate," said Ikura, "so long as the job gets done."

"I'm just here to kill people," said Orkal, "these two can play politics all they want. Just point me in the right direction and leave the bloodletting to me."

"Then I believe I have my answer," said Lord Desler, "and now you will have it. I'll dispatch the taskforce immediately. But before I give the order, you Hakonians need to understand the fact that I have no tolerance for failure."

"We understand," said Ikura.

"No you don't," said Lord Desler, "the taskforce I sent to exterminate the humans on Earth, when their base was destroyed by _The Yamato_, I then ordered them to either destroy _The Yamato _or never come home. They fought the humans with everything they had. They fought valiantly, yet _The Yamato _and her crew survived while every last Gamilus in the taskforce was killed.

"This is what you to understand; once you accept the resources of Gamilus, you take on the responsibility of destroying _The Yamato_. I care less about your enemies, those Keyblade Wielders, but whatever the cost, my enemies must be destroyed. If you Hakonians aren't up to the task, if you fail to destroy _The Yamato_, then you'd better hope that they destroy you, or, if you should survive the failure, that your ships are faster than mine.

"Failure means I will hut you down until you are caught and I take your sorry hides back to Gamilus as trophies. Do you understand now?"

"I understood from the beginning," said Grekor, "our mistress also has zero tolerance for failure. You should see what she does to those who displease her, you'd find some of what Maleficent has in mind shocking."

"I've ordered the extermination of entire races," said a smirking Lord Desler, "what you find shocking and what I find shocking are highly different."

"Well the last two who failed Maleficent are being forced to get married," said Orkal, "these two kids hate each other, so naturally they're being forced to spend eternity together."

"And your mistress decided that they would be forcibly wedded?" Lord Desler asked. He laughed heartily yet viciously, "impressive! A bit shocking, yes, but very impressive. I would like to meet your mistress if possible."

"I'd be happy to arrange a conference," said Grekor, "but first thing's first. When can we expect your taskforce?"

An adjutant handed a document to Lord Desler, whom then signed it, "I just gave the approval. The taskforce should be assembled within the hour. All that is needed is your coordinates in order to designate a rendezvous point."

"Transmit our coordinates to them," said Ikura to a lesser Hakonian, who did so.

A few seconds later another adjutant handed another printout to Lord Desler, "yes, yes. Transmit an appropriate location where the two armadas can meet."

"Yes, Lord Desler," said the adjutant, who then bowed and left.

"The time and coordinates for the rendezvous will be transmitted to you momentarily," said Lord Desler.

"Excellent," said Grekor, "I can assure you, my lord, that both our enemies will be destroyed. I stake my life and the lives of my comrades on it."

"For your sakes, you'd better keep that promise," said Lord Desler. With that the transmission ended.

"Are you out of your fraking mind!" exclaimed Orkal, "betting my life on this!"

"I also have to ask if you've gone insane," said Ikura to Grekor, "you had no right to wager our lives like this! What you do with your pitiful life is your business, but don't get me involved!"

"Same with me!" said an irate Orka, "I have no intention of putting my head on the block like this!"

"And what will Maleficent do to us if we fail?" Grekor asked, "if you think that death is the worst thing that can happen to us, just remember what happened to Erika when she failed. And let us not forget the punishments Maleficent inflicted on Reddik, Rakel and Konrad. And least we not forget the forced betrothal of Nikolai and Katarina."

"You don't have to remind us of that," said Ikura, "okay, you've made your point. This Desler can kill us, but Maleficent can do much worse."

"I think this Desler guy can torture us if he catches us," said Orkal.

"You both are overreacting," said Grekor, "we haven't even tried to succeed yet."

"You saw how many Heartless those Keyblade brats took out," said Ikura, "and you saw how powerful that big laser on The Yamato was. Do you honestly think that these Gamilus guys can make any difference? They couldn't destroy _The Yamato_, so what makes you think they can destroy the brats?"

"We won't know until we all try," said Grekor. A lesser Hakonian then handed him a data printout, "and we've got two hours until we're due at the rendezvous point to decide how to destroy both The Keyblade Wielders and _The Yamato_."

"But what if we do fail?" Orkal asked, "what if we try to destroy them and end up with our butts kicked? What then?"

"Then we'd better hope that our engines can outrun both the forces of Lord Desler and Maleficent," said Grekor, "for I have no desire to face either one of them when displeased."

"Neither do I," said Ikura. "In the meantime, I think it would be a good idea that we find out all we can about those Heartless that exist in this universe. If we can use them, then we have another weapon against The Keyblade Wielders. I suggest that we dispatch one of our ships to find the local Heartless."

"I agree," said Grekor, "send a survey vessel to find the local Heartless at once."

"But what if we can't use the local Heartless?" Orkal asked as a lesser Hakonian sent the orders to the rest of the armada, "what if the locals can't be controlled?"

"Then we'll be lucky not to wind up as Heartless," said Grekor.

**The end of chapter 3.**

Next chapter, as our heroes learn more about The Yamato, the three Hakonians link up with the Gamilus taskforce and plan their dark plans. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!


	4. Chapter 4: Investigating the Darkness

Last time found Sora and the others meeting the crew of _The Yamato_, the last hope for planet Earth. Years ago the evil Gamilus attacked Earth, bombarding the planet with radioactive meteors, rendering the surface lifeless and leaving humanity on the path to extinction. _The Yamato_ is on a quest to the faraway planet Iscandar to recover the means to purify Earth. But one delay after another has plagued The Yamato and her crew. There is still time to save Earth, but not much.

But now The Heartless and Hakonians are involved. After much discussion the crew of The Yamato voted to team up with Sora and the others to deal with this new threat.

Elsewhere, the three Hakonians formed a temporary alliance with Lord Desler, leader of Gamilus. They agreed on a join venture to destroy our heroes and _The Yamato_. 'Nuff said, on with the show!

**Chapter 4: Investigating the Darkness**

Sora and the others were amazed by the complex yet easy to understand features of _The Yamato_. Aside from the bridge and captain's dinning room, our heroes were shown, by Kodai and Yuki, the main navigation room that served as a secondary bridge. The strange extension of the hull directly underneath the command tower was a third bridge that was used while _The Yamato_ was underwater.

"So, _The Yamato _can be like a submarine," said an impressed Riku.

"We even have several torpedo tubes," said Kodai.

"How does the ship operate while in a planet's atmosphere?" Aiden asked, "you'd think something this big would have, I don't know, wings or something."

"Actually," said Yuki, "we do."

"The ship has retractable wings for atmospheric flight," said Kodai, "and a backup engine that powers the normal thrusters while in cruising mode and in an atmosphere."

Our heroes were then showed the main hanger of the ship, where dozens of black and yellow space fighters lay waiting for their pilots.

"These are the Black Tigers," said Kodai, "our own escort and attack fighters." he then pointed to a red and white fighter that was designed differently from the other fighters in the hangar, "that's my plane, The Cosmo Zero. I can honestly say that these birds are a match for any dozen Gamilus fighter. And our pilots are a hell of a lot more talented."

"Straight from the horses' mouth, Kodai?" teased Yuki.

"Well, uh, yeah," said Kodai in a mildly embarrassed tone.

"I don't get it," said Tess, "you said that Gamilus destroyed every attempt to drive then from your territory, but how did you do it?"

"It was Starshia," said Shima as he walked up to them, "the sister of Queen Starsha. She was the one who died trying to bring the plans for the Wave Motion Engine to Earth. Kodai and I found Starshia on Mars and brought her body back to Earth, along with the message capsule."

"But also in the capsule was the chemical formula for the alloy used by Gamilus," said Sanada as he walked up, "our scientists were able to modify our weapons as they were finishing construction on _The Yamato_."

"The enemy thought they were superior," said Kodai, "we showed them on Pluto, and everywhere else they tried to destroy us."

"I'll say," said Aiden, "that Wave Motion Gun, if we had that in our universe, Maleficent and all the other Villains wouldn't stand a ghost of a chance."

"It is a big gun," said Kodai, "but it's not perfect. In order to use it, we have to shut down all nonessential systems on the ship on order to channel the full power of the Wave Motion Engine into the Gun."

"After we fire the Gun we're virtually defenseless for a minute or so," said Shima, "we can't move or fire our other weapons until all the systems are reactivated."

"But we've been lucky so far," said Yuki.

"You wouldn't be here if you weren't," said Kairi.

"What's this about other weapons?" Tess asked.

"I'm glad you asked," said an eager Kodai, "I'll show you."

Whereas the original _Yamato _had three batteries of three, 9in cannons and two batteries of three, 6in cannons, the new _Yamato _had shock cannons that fired triple beams of energy that converged after firing into a single beam that could destroy an enemy battleship in one blast. The shock cannons could also fire projectile shells like regular cannons, only these shells could contain defensive weapons, like artificial asteroid materials that could form a shield around the ship.

Each battery of shock cannons had their own control crew who could fire the guns independently, yet all the cannons could be linked through the ships' computer and fired from the bridge.

The multiple 25 and 13mm anti-aircraft machine guns on the original _Yamato _had been replaced with pulse lasers that were also for the defense of the ship from enemy fighters, as well as destroy incoming missiles.

_The Yamato _could fire missiles of her own. These missiles carried either energy warheads that could destroy enemy ships and fighters, and could also be used to create small energy webs that destroy incoming missiles.

As Kodai mentioned, the ship had several torpedo tubes that were mostly used for underwater combat, but could be configured to fire additional missiles. Also, the smokestack behind the command tower was used to launch large, nuclear-tipped missiles.

"That's about it for the weapons," said Yuki, "now comes the real fun."

Our heroes were then shown to a large room that had a three-dimensional image of a Hawaian beach, "this is our hologram chamber," said Yuki, "here we can recreate any image we can come up with. We mostly use this room for recreation and to combat homesickness."

"An important issue on any ship," said Riku.

Just then our heroes saw Analyzer dancing with a row of hula girls, which lead to Sora and the others laughing heavily.

"Cut that out, Analyzer!" said an annoyed Yuki, "this is a serious matter."

"Don't be so tense, Ms. Yuki," said Analyzer. He then made a hiccupping sound, while parts of his internal machinery pulsed red, "come and join the party." he then hiccupped again.

"Oh great," said Kokai in an annoyed tone, "he's had sake again."

"So, the rust bucket can get hammered," said Sidney in a devious mannner.

"I am not drunk!" Analyzer insisted, who then hiccupped again, "I am having fun!"

"I think you've had enough fun for now," said Yuki.

Our heroes were then shown to Sickbay, where Dr. Sado was treating a patient for a simple broken arm, "accidents happen all the time," said the good doctor in a humorous tone as he treated his patient, then took a swig from a nearby sake bottle, "if you'd just loosen up a bit and enjoyed life a bit more, you'd hurt yourself less."

"Behold, the source of Analyzer's intoxication," said Yuki.

As if on cue, Analyzer trundled in, "I told you I am not drunk!" the robot insisted, then hiccupped again.

"Ah, here's my favorite drinking buddy!" said a joyful Dr. Sado as he threw his arm around Analyzer, "and my favorite assistant!"

"I thought you were my assistant," said Analyzer.

"I think you both have had enough to drink," said Kairi.

"Nonsense!" said Dr. Sado, "a good dose of sake is essential to maintaining health."

"Not my health," said Aiden.

"Let's get out of here before we all get drunk," said Sora.

"I agree," said Kodai.

"Don't be a stranger!" Dr. Sado called after our heroes as they left Sickbay, "my door is always open!"

"Except when you're too drunk to sit up," said Analyzer, who then hiccupped again.

"Ah, go bend a rod," said Dr. Sado as he took another swig of sake.

Our heroes then arrived in the main engine room and were amazed by the large red and yellow turbine-like machine before them.

"Is this The Wave Motion Engine?" an awed Sora asked, "it's huge!"

"It has to be," said Chief Tokugawa, "in order to propel a ship this big through space and time."

"And it uses the vacuum of space to create tachyon energy," said Riku.

"Technically it is better than our method of FTL travel," said Sidney, "with us, we use matter and anti-mater to create energy. But you have to be careful with anti-matter. You know what happens when matter and anti-matter meet."

"They annihilate each other," said Kairi, "if you're not careful, you could get blown up with it."

"Tachyons are more stable than anti-matter," said Riku, "next time we talk with The King, we'll talk with him about it."

"Right," said Sora.

Our heroes were then shown to a large room that held several large capsules that seemed to contain sleeping members of the crew.

"This is our cryogenic room," said Kodai, "you've only met part of the crew. Half work, while the other half is in a cold sleep, waiting for the next shift."

"That would make conserving supplies and preserving crew sanity less of a problem," said Kairi.

Finally, our heroes were shown to the main conference room where Captain Okita was waiting for them, "I trust you're please with the ship."

"I'll say," said a grinning Sora, "_The Yamato _is fantastic," he looked at Sidney, "no offense."

"None taken," said Sidney, "I'm impressed myself."

Captain Okita then nodded. He then directed our heroes to a floor-mounted display screen that showed a detailed star chart, with one particular star outlined, "this is our present location in space. As you can see," he then pointed out a nearby swath of empty space that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be stars that were consumed by darkness, "The Heartless have been very busy."

"This is definitely a problem," said Sidney as she and the others saw the area of darkness on the screen, "in more ways than one."

"This isn't like with The Heartless in our universe and elsewhere," said Riku, "there's something else going on. It's like these Heartless are moving with a purpose."

"So they've got a Villain directing them," said Aiden, "we'll squash them like we've squashed every other Villain we've faced."

"Well, Gamilus isn't controlling them," said Kodai, "we would have seen the two working before."

"Gamilus may not even be involved with The Heartless," said Sanada, "this is a big galaxy, there may be other races involved. But that may not be the case. As far as we can tell, the Heartless of this universe are indeed acting on their own."

"That's not right," said Sora, "Heartless can't think for themselves. They act on instinct, which will make them attack random worlds, unless someone tells them what to do."

"But we've seen heartless that can think," said Kairi, "that really strong Heartless that was the Heartless of Xehnaort. And have you forgotten about Kurayami that quickly?"

"I wish we'd never met Kurayami in the first place," said Sora, shuddering at the memory of having his heart crystal removed.

"So there is the chance that these Heartless are capable of thinking for themselves," said Riku.

"There may be another possibility," said Aiden in a grim tone, "one that I wish I hadn't thought of, one that I hope to the gods that I'm wrong."

"Well don't keep us in suspense, man," said Kodai, "what is it?"

Aiden sighed and closed his eyes, "there's the chance that in this universe, Heartless operate on a hive-mentality; one race, one mind."

"Like bees or ants," said Captain Okita, "can this possibly be real?"

"If it is," said Riku, "then we could be facing the biggest threat to life as we know it. My friends and I have seen the horrors that Heartless can do when directed by Villains, and we've seen what they can do on their own with just their instincts guiding them.

"But if they have a group consciousness, if they're acting with a will of their own, then they're twice as dangerous as anything we've ever faced before."

"Then we have to do something!" said Kodai, "before they hurt anyone else!"

"Kodai!" said Captain Okita in a stern tone, "don't get overexcited over what you can't control."

At that Kodai calmed down somewhat, "yes, Captain," said Kodai.

"We'll just get ourselves destroyed if we rush into this recklessly," said Shima, "what's going to happen to Earth if we end up destroying ourselves fighting The Heartless?"

"But eventually The Heartless will attack Earth," said Yuki, "we've talked about this before."

"That was before we realized how great a threat this is," said Sanada.

"Wait," said Sora, "we're not even sure that The Heartless in this universe are like that, that they're all linked to form a super mind or something."

"We need to figure things out before we do anything," said Kairi.

"Well, what do you think we should do?" Kodai asked.

At that our heroes thought for a bit. Sora finally had a thought, "can I see a larger map? One that shows your course towards Iscandar?"

The floor display shifted to show both the Milky Way Galaxy and The Large Magellanic Cloud. A blue dot in the Milky Way represented Earth, and another dot in the Cloud showed where the crew of _The Yamato_ thought Iscandar was. A yellow dot represented The Yamato somewhere on the edge of the galaxy.

"As said before," said Captain Okita, "were behind schedule." He then pointed at a red spot halfway between the galaxy and The Cloud, "That's Belan, a rouge planet right at the halfway point between Earth and Iscandar."

"You've still got a long way to go," said Tess.

"Don't remind us," said a slightly annoyed Kodai.

"Can you now show the worlds and stars destroyed by The Heartless?" Sora asked.

The display then darkened in certain areas in the galaxy. "Now zoom in on that part," said Sora. The display showed the dark area in more detail, and sure enough, it paralleled the flight path of _The Yamato _part of the way, as if they had been following the ship for several days now.

"What does it mean?" Yuki asked.

"I could be wrong," said Sora, "but I think The Heartless are also on their way to Iscandar."

"Why?" Kodai asked.

"Maybe the creatures really are controlled by Gamilus," said Shima, "as a backup plan to stop us from getting the Cosmo Cleaner D."

"Then why didn't Gamilus use Heartless to attack Earth?" Sanada, "why didn't they use them at Pluto and everywhere else we fought Gamilus?"

"Whatever the reason," said Captain Okita, "we definitely need to know. I suggest that we find out."

"Captain, we're behind schedule as it is," said Sanada, "even though we all acknowledge the threat of The Heartless, we can't waste any more time."

"Which is why I'm going to ask Sora and his friends if they wouldn't mind volunteering for a reconnaissance mission," said Captain Okita. "Naturally, some of my crew would go with you, say, Kodai and Analyzer, and maybe Sanada."

"Use our ship to try and find out what these particular Heartless are up to," said Kairi.

"A field trip," said Sora.

"Sounds dangerous," said Riku, "very dangerous."

"Fortunately for us," said a grinning Aiden, "we've dealt with danger on all levels."

"I'm used to the threat of death or worse hanging over me," said Tess, "count me in as well."

"Excuse me," said Sidney, "I am the brain for _The Intrepid Heart_. Isn't it fair that I should voice my opinion?"

"Absolutely," said Kairi.

"Thank you," said Sidney. She then looked at the senior crew of _The Yamato _and smiled, "I'll do it."

"Then let's go do some snooping," said Sora.

"Just give us a chance to get ready and we'll go," said Kodai.

* * *

><p>"So you want to send a scouting mission to learn about the Heartless of this universe?" Ikura asked.<p>

"That's exactly what I want," said Grekor, "the potential for these creatures is too great to pass up. We need to learn all that we can if we wish to exploit them."

"Well count me out," said Orkal, "I came to kill, not learn."

"Which proves that not all Hakonians are capable of intelligence," said Grekor.

"You'll come with me and you'll like it," said an annoyed Ikura, "Grekor can handle the Gamilus taskforce when it gets here, so you're coming with me to find out about these new Heartless."

"No I'm not!" Orkal insisted.

"You will," said Ikura, "or I'll rip off something you value more than your own life, if you know what I mean."

"You wouldn't," said a nervous Orkal, "would you?"

"In a minute," said Ikura firmly as she crossed her arms.

"I suggest that you prepare for an extended venture into deep space," said Grekor, "I'll have a long-range shuttle prepared soon enough."

Orkal glared at both Ikura and Grekor before finally nodding in reluctant acknowledgement.

"Excellent," said Grekor.

* * *

><p>"Our ship can catch up with <em>The Yamato <em>if she has to Warp," said Riku to Captain Okita as our heroes made their way back to _The Intrepid Heart _with Kodai, Sanada and the now sober Analyzer, "we can prepare a subspace beacon that'll let us find you, so don't wait for us."

"We know how crucial time is to you," said Kairi, "so we'll be as quick as we can."

"We'll wait as long as we can regardless," said Captain Okita, "but that doesn't mean you should take any unnecessary risks. If it looks like there will be trouble, get out and get back to us," he looked at Kodai, "that means you as well, Kodai."

"Yes, captain!" said Kodai.

"I just had a thought," said Kairi, "if we put a beacon on _The Yamato_, won't the enemy be able to find her as well?"

"Not if we tune the beacon to a special frequency," said Sidney, "one that only _The Intrepid Heart _can detect."

"That answers my questions," said Aiden.

A short time later everything was ready. Kodai, Sanada and Analyzer had come aboard _The Intrepid Heart _and our heroes were just about to disengage the airlock seal connecting them to _The Yamato_.

"Either I've got space madness," said Kodai, "or this ship is a lot bigger on the inside."

"It is bigger on the inside," said Sanada, "I've heard of spatial difference technology, but this ship is way beyond anything I've ever seen or heard."

"I am detecting traces of an unidentified energy," said Analyzer, "the hull of this vessel is constructed of a material unknown to current Earth science."

"Different universes, different technologies," said Riku.

Our heroes reached the bridge and assumed their stations, while their friends from _The Yamato _sat down in seats Sidney provided for them.

"Holograms," said Sanada as he and Kodai got comfortable, while Analyzer was fine where he stood, "we definitely have to share technologies."

"We're going to take the ship into the area of darkness," said Riku as the ship detached from _The Yamato_, "and we'll follow the trail of the local Heartless. If they're really going to Iscandar, we'll stop them somehow."

"Okay, let's go," said Sora.

"The coordinates are set," said Kairi.

"Then let's do it!" said Aiden as he rubbed his wrists.

"You might want to hold onto something," said Sora to Kodai and Sanada, "you're not used to our means of FTL."

"For you guys," said Tess, "it could get rough."

"How rough could it be?" Kodai asked.

Just then the ship was propelled into hyperspace.

"That bad," said Riku as everyone saw how uncomfortable Kodai and Sanada looked.

"I feel like I've had way to much sake," moaned Kodai, while Sanada nodded in agreement.

"All systems are functioning normally," said Analyzer. He then hiccupped again.

"Oh great," said an annoyed Kodai, "he's drunk again!"

"I am not drunk!" Analyzer insisted.

"Hyperspace affects everyone during their first time," said Kairi.

"How soon until we reach the dark area?" Sora asked.

"Less than fifteen minutes," said Sidney.

"We'd better be ready for anything," said Aiden, "for all we know, we'll be flying into another mass of Heartless."

"I've got all weapons fully charged," said Tess, "all we need are targets."

"My fingers are on the triggers!" said an eager Goofy.

"Don't go all halfcocked," said Donald.

"If there's anything we're not," said Sanada, "it's halfcocked. Except for Kodai that is."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kodai asked.

"Well, you can be a little…impulsive sometimes," said Sanada.

"I am not impulsive," said Kodai, "eager, but not impulsive."

"Then who was it that nearly killed that Gamilus prisoner we took that one time?" Sanada asked, "Analyzer?"

"It was Kodai," said Analyzer.

"Well, I was rather upset," said a slightly uncomfortable Kodai.

"You actually tried to kill a prisoner of war?" a shocked Kairi asked.

"I wanted to," said a rather ashamed Kodai, "I wanted to make that blue-skinned monster suffer, like everyone else on Earth has suffered, all because of Gamilus. But I stopped at the last second, and my friends also stopped me. I wanted to kill that one Gamilus, but realized that murdering him wouldn't bring my family back, or anyone else."

"You nearly gave in to your inner darkness," said Riku in a sympathetic tone, "but you saved yourself at the last second. You're stronger than I was when I was temped by my inner darkness."

"You weren't that weak, Riku," said Sora, "you never became a Heartless."

"You only became a Heartless because you choose to do so," said Riku.

"You were a Heartless!" a shocked Tess asked Sora.

"He was a Heartless?" Kodai asked as he and Sanada backed away, "Analyzer, check him!"

"Scanning!" said Analyzer as the components of his cybernetic brain flashed and beeped, "no hostile elements detected. He is human."

"I am human," insisted Sora, "but I had to become a Heartless. I had to give up my heart in order to free Kairi's."

"I spent a long time as a breathing doll," said Kairi, "all because my heart wound up inside of Sora. He had to become a Heartless to get my heart out of him, and my feelings for him saved him from the darkness."

"Oh," said Kodai, "I guess that makes sense."

"You'll find that a lot of stuff that happens to us doesn't make much sense," said Aiden.

A few minutes later the ship exited hyperspace and our heroes and allies found themselves in the middle of a dead solar system. The star had been reduced to a burned out mass, barely bright enough to be a brown dwarf, while the planets, five of them, were covered in darkness.

"I'm reading signs of civilization," said Sidney, "there were people here, a lot of people, but there's no sign of any living human bio-signs. I am picking up some Heartless activity, but not much. Whatever happened here, it wasn't recent."

"All those people, consumed by the darkness," said Kairi in a distant tone, "it's horrible. If this can happen in this universe…then…"

"We won't let anyone else get hurt," said Sora in a confident tone, "we'll stop them somehow."

"I think we've got something else to worry about," said Aiden as he read a display screen, "something other than Heartless. There's a sixth planet in this system, and it looks like it wasn't destroyed by darkness."

"There's still life in this system?" Riku asked hopefully.

"I didn't say there were still people here," said Aiden in a grave tone, "I meant that The Heartless didn't destroy this world. Something else did, something that used high-yield weapons. From what I can tell so far, there's mass destruction across the planet, and not much in the way of life at all."

"Gamilus?" Kodai asked.

"Uncertain at this time," said Sidney, "I am scanning the sixth planet in more detail." A display screen showed the data she collected.

"High levels of radiation detected," said Analyzer as he interpreted the data collected, "yet radiation signatures do not correlate with those of the radioactive bombs used by Gamilus."

"What does that mean?" Sora asked.

"I think it means that the ones who destroyed the planet weren't either The Heartless or Gamilus," said Tess, "that something else is responsible."

"Whoever that was uses weapons with unparallel destructive force," said Sidney, "I've identified only a single blast zone, but radiation released throughout the planet could only have come from a massive nuclear detonation, one in the range exceeding twenty gigatones."

At that Kodai gave a low whistle of appreciation.

"Not even the biggest meteor bomb used by Gamius had a yield a tenth as big," said an astonished Sanada."

"That doesn't make much sense," said Aiden, "even if the bombs, if they were bombs, were as powerful, not even that much destructive force should have completely devastated the planet. I read online about nuclear war simulations, and it would take a lot more than one massive nuclear detonation to produce global destruction like this."

"They still have the internet in your world?" Kodai asked, "ours went down when the meteor bombs first fell on Japan."

"We never lost our internet," said Riku.

"One warhead alone couldn't destroy a planet," said Sanada, "no matter how powerful, not on its own, unless…what else do the scanners say about an atmosphere?"

"There is no atmosphere," said Sidney, "not one a human could survive in. There's barely any oxygen. Further scans reveal that the global destruction was caused not by the initial blast and radiation alone. There is mass incineration across the entire planet, as if the world was consumed in one massive fire storm."

"It is possible that whoever did this detonated that warhead at an altitude high enough to ignite the atmosphere," said Sanada, "and that if the warhead itself was contained in a tricobalt casing, their yields would be exponentially increased beyond the megaton range into the multi-gigaton range. All these factors combined would create a scenario in which a planets' atmosphere was ignited, thereby reducing the surface of the planet to ashes."

"Probability of this scenario being the truth of this situation…89%," said Analyzer

"They didn't completely turn the surface to ashes," said Sidney, "there's still ruins. It's as if who or whatever did this had the knowledge to destroy a world, yet didn't completely use the means, as if they weren't serious about it."

"What does that mean?" Sora asked, "that whoever did this was only fooling around? That it's…" he hesitated, "that it's a game to them?"

"More like they were just testing their capabilities," said Sidney, "but your scenario is still a possibility."

"So we've got the warmongering Gamilus out to rule the universe," said Riku, "Hakonians trying to get this weird element, the local Heartless, whom seem to be smarter than the ones we've seen before, and now somebody destroying worlds for fun."

"I knew I should have stayed in bed this morning," said Aiden.

* * *

><p>"We've reached the rendezvous point, Lord Grekor," said the lesser Hakonian at the navigation seat of the bridge.<p>

"Excellent," said Grekor, "the Gamilus taskforce should arrive shortly."

"Initial reports from the ship we sent to learn about the local Heartless are coming in now," said Ikura, "they're in a twin-star system that's been overrun by the darkness. Both suns have been burned out, while eleven planets in the system have been covered in darkness."

"I like these local Heartless already," said Orkal, "can't wait to meet them."

"There's more," said Ikura as she read the report, "there was a twelfth planet in the system, and that one wasn't destroyed by The Heartless. Someone else, someone with advanced knowledge in nuclear warfare, was responsible."

"Gamilus?" Grekor asked.

"Not certain at this time," said Ikura, "the scans from the irradiated planet do not match the information we have on Gamilus' nuclear capabilities. No, another power with nuclear weapons did this."

Just then one of the lesser Hakonians announced that the Gamilus taskforce had arrived at the rendezvous point.

"On screen," said Ikura. The main viewer showed several green-painted starships, all armed with missile launchers and triple-battery laser cannons. Some of the warships were much larger than others, while the one in the center of the Gamilus formation had a circular design.

"That's the command ship for the taskforce," said Ikura as she read from a data printout received earlier, "which also serves as a carrier that can hold over a hundred fighters. The taskforce has two battleships, four heavy battle cruisers, four medium cruisers, six light cruisers, eight destroyers and ten torpedo boats. Combined with our battlewagons and our Heartless forces, we'll definitely have more than enough firepower to obliterate The Keyblade Brats."

"Don't forget that other human ship," said Orkal, "the one with that big laser. What was it called?"

"_The Yamato_, you dipstick," said an irate Ikura.

"That's enough," said Grekor sternly, "we're about to meet the leader of the Gamilus taskforce, and I want to make a good impression on him. These are people we wish to eventually exploit, so the sooner they trust us, the sooner we can betray that trust, after our respective enemies are destroyed that is."

A short while later the Hakonian command ship and Gamilus command ship had docked with each other. It was already agreed that the Gamilus leader would meet with the Hakonians on the former's ship. Grekor, Ikura and Orkal, having spruced themselves up for their expected company, were getting into radiation suits.

"You did instruct the crew to take double doses of radiation medicine," said Ikura to Grekor, "just to be safe."

"I did that already," said Grekor as he, Ikura and Orkal injected themselves with medicine that protected them from radiation, then finished donning their radiation suits, "I know that Gamilus men and women need radiation to survive."

Just then the pressure in the airlocks of both ships equalized. The three Hakonians went through their airlock, into the airlock of the other ship. They waited for the door back to their ship closed, then the Gamilus airlock was flooded with radiation. Sensors on the suit's the three Hakonians wore told them that they weren't in any danger yet, but cautioned to minimize their exposure.

"We won't be over there for long," said Ikura as the inner door to the Gamilus ship opened. On the other side were several blue-skinned men wearing green and black uniforms. One of the blue-skinned men in the center was clearly the leader, his uniform was more ornately designed and had several military decorations. He had dark brown hair and near black eyes.

"I am Star Commander Heinz," said the lead Gamilus man, "You must be the Hakonians that Lord Desler informed me of."

"We are," said Grekor. He, Ikura and Orkal introduced themselves.

"Now that we are all acquainted with each other," said Commander Heinz, "I suggest we get down to business; destroying our enemies."

"My thoughts exactly," said Ikura, "but before we discuss how we're going to make our respective enemies suffer before they die, I have a few questions to ask. I'm guessing Lord Desler informed you about the worlds that have been consumed by darkness."

"It has been a topic of mild interest among the forces of Gamilus," said Commander Heinz, "you say that creatures called Heartless are responsible?"

"Yes," said Grekor, "but when I spoke with Lord Desler, he said that he wasn't interested in them."

"Then Gamilus has no interest in The Heartless," said Heinz, "the forces under my command will cooperate with you Hakonians and tolerate working with your Heartless, but after that, we want nothing to do with them. Lord Desler's word is law, and if he says that Gamilus is to have nothing to do with The Heartless, then there no point in arguing."

"I respect that," said Ikura, yet already she and Grekor were trying to figure out a way to use the almost fanatical devotion Lord Desler commanded of his subjects against all of Gamilus.

"What I wanted to know," continued Ikura, "was if Gamilus has any knowledge of a world that was purposely destroyed by nuclear weapons, and I do not mean your efforts to subjugate Earth."

"I am unaware of any other world in which Gamilus had used nuclear force against," said Commander Heinz.

"Are you sure?" Ikura asked. She handed Commander Heinz a data tablet containing the information the Hakonian scout ship gathered on the destroyed world.

"As far as I know," said Commander Heinz after reading the data, "this was not the work of Gamilus, nor is it the work of any other race that Gamilus has had contact with."

"Then it appears that we have a mystery on our hands," said Grekor, while Ikura glared at Commander Heinz in a way that said that she didn't believe him, "but that will have to wait. First, the more important task; destroying our enemies. I suggest that our combined forces return to where we encountered _The Yamato _and The Keyblade Wielders, and then, having already formulated a plan of attack, obliterate them both."

"I see two problems already," said Commander Heinz, "first of all, I doubt that the other Hakonians under your command wish to risk radiation poisoning, and those under my command cannot go without radiation for an extended amount of time, so coordinating our efforts will take some figuring out."

"I'm sure we can arrange some way to accommodate both parties in this venture," said Grekor, "what is your second concern?"

"_The Yamato_," said Commander Heinz, "our intelligence says that that ship is capable of traversing 1,200 light years in an instance. By now they could have Warped to another point in the cosmos and have taken The Keyblade Wielders with them."

"Your ships have sensors, right?" Ikura asked, "and computers?"

"The most advanced scanning equipment and computers Lord Desler could purchase for his forces," said Commander Heinz, "how advanced are yours?"

"Advanced enough," said Ikura, "unless I'm mistaken, and I'm not, our technologies are compatible enough that if we link all the computers in both armadas, we can increase the range of all our scanners and find The Yamato and the Keyblade Brats, wherever they've Warped to."

"They're heading to Iscandar in the Large Magellanic Cloud," said Commander Heinz, "it stands to reason that they will want to continue on their course, even if they're being pursued."

"Then is suggest we start our search at where we first fought our enemies," said Grekor, "along the way we can link computers and plan a strategy, one that could neutralize their greatest weapon."

"The Wave Motion Gun," said Commander Heinz, "if that issue could be resolved, then the human vermin wouldn't stand a ghost of a chance. Very well, I'll speak with my senior staff and coordinate the computer link up from our end. We'll keep our communication channels open."

"As will we," said Ikura. The two groups bowed to each other and the Hakonians went back to their ship.

Once in their airlock, the three Hakonians went through an extensive decontamination process. Their radiation suits were doused several times in detergent to remove as much radiation as possible. Then the suits were destroyed and Ikura, Orkal and Grekor were rinsed in detergent to get rid of any radiation that may have gotten through the suits. Finally, when the sensors in the airlock confirmed the absence of radiation, did the three Hakonians step back into their ships proper area.

"We're not going back there," said Orkal as he, Ikura and Grekor had fresh clothing brought to them by lesser Hakonians, "it takes way too long to put on radiations suits, and coming back takes too long as well."

"I agree," said Ikura, "too much time is spent traversing the two ships. I suggest that from now on, all communications between us and the Gamilus be conducted from the bridge."

"So be it," said Grekor, "but there is little to be worried about. This alliance of our will last only as long as necessary. As soon as we have all the information we need on Gamilus, and as soon as our enemies are destroyed, then we will turn the tables on our new friends. And let us not forget the Uridium. Maleficent's patience only stretches so far."

**The end of chapter 4**

Next chapter, our heroes and allies try to figure out what to do next. But when the Hakonians and Gamilus force our heroes and allies to seek better ground to fight on, they wind up facing an even darker enemy. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!


	5. Chapter 5: Battle Among the Blazing Star

Last time found Sora and the others taking a fieldtrip with Koday and a few others from The Yamato to a star system that was destroyed by The Heartless. The dark devastation was horrific, but what was even more so was finding a world that wasn't destroyed by The Heartless, but instead by a massive nuclear attack.

The Hakonians were also puzzled when they found a different star system that suffered a Heartless attack, and had a world destroyed by nuclear weapons. But the Villains put their curiosity aside when they joined their armada with a Gamilus taskforce dispatched with the purpose of destroying _The Yamato _and _The Intrepid Heart_. 'Nuff said, on with the show!

**Chapter 5: Battle Among the Blazing Stars**

"I think we've learned all we can learn about this destroyed world," said Sanada.

"All available data has been gathered," said Analyzer, "suggest we return to _The Yamato_."

"That's what Sanada just said, you rust bucket," said an irate Sidney, "but that doesn't make you wrong. We should rendezvous with _The Yamato_."

"Alright then," said Sora, "let's head back."

"How do we know that _The Yamato _will still be where we left them?" Aiden asked as everyone got back into their seats for the hyperspace jump, "they may have Warped by now."

"No, it's still too soon," said Sanada, "the Wave Motion Engine needs eight hours cool down time between Warps, and we still have over an hour before the next scheduled Warp. _The Yamato _will still be there."

"Then let's go," said Riku as he programmed hyperspace jump into the computer, "we'll be back with _The Yamato _in fifteen minutes."

"What are we going to tell Captain Okita and the rest of the crew?" Kairi asked as the ship jumped into hyperspace, "about what we found on that world."

"The truth of course," said Sora, "why wouldn't we tell them about that world that was destroyed in a nuclear attack? And we should also tell them that there's this huge swarm of Heartless."

"We should try to warn as many world as possible," said Riku, "from what we could tell from that one solar system, we're dealing with a force of Heartless unlike anything we've seen before. This one…Swarm, if we're going to call it anything, this Swarm makes the numbers of Heartless Maleficent commands looks like ants compared to elephants."

"That's saying a lot," said Kodai, "I remember elephants, my family went to the Tokyo zoo all the time before Gamilus ruined everything. But these Heartless, if they could do that to a whole star system, then Gamilus is nothing next to them."

"It would be advisable to consider the option of considering an alliance with Gamilus," said Analyzer, "'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.'"

"Absolutely not!" said an irate Kodai, "after all that Gamilus did to Earth, after all the people they killed, you actually thing we'll even think about working with them?"

"He does have a valid point," said Sidney, "as much as I hate to admit it. History is full of conflicts where two enemies put aside their differences to combat a greater enemy. The situation with The Heartless may just be one of those situations."

"Maybe you could use this as a means of establishing peace with Gamilus," said Kairi to Kodai, "you did say that not all Gamilus people are evil. I'm just saying that this could be humanity's chance for peace. If Gamilus wasn't attacking _The Yamato _all the time, then you'd have all the time you needed to get to Iscandar and get back to Earth with the Cosmo Cleaner D."

"They do have a valid point," said Sanada, "as a scientist, I always try to see things logically, and it would be logical to seek an alliance with Gamilus, to try to put our differences aside, in order to face an even greater evil."

"When it comes to choosing the lesser of two evils, I'd rather not have to make that choice," said Riku, "I'd always try to find another way. But in this case, then I'd have to agree. If joining forces with Gamilus to defeat The Heartless can result in peace between humanity and Gamilus, then I say go for it."

At that Kodai sighed, "I don't like it, and I doubt the rest of _The Yamato _crew will like it either. Captain Okita may consider it, but…I just don't know."

"I couldn't hurt to try," said Tess, "nothing will ever get done if you don't try. But if you try in the wrong way, you'll end up falling on your face in the mud. I should know, I worked with The Rebels on Metamore enough to know what happens when you don't properly follow through on a plan."

"If we're going to even consider working with Gamilus," said Riku, "we need to know for sure where they stand in all of this. For all we know, they are controlling The Heartless in this universe, and they are responsible for the nuclear attack on that world, having used a different kind of nuclear weapon."

"That's a distinct possibility," said Sidney, "but we still have to consider the possibility of a third party involved."

"How about this," said Sora, "when we tell Captain Okita what we found, we'll tell only him about the idea of working with Gamilus."

"That sounds fair to me," said Sanada.

"Alright," said Kodai reluctantly, "we'll tell the captain, but I don't think he'll like it."

* * *

><p>A while later <em>The Intrepid Heart <em>had returned to the world around which _The Yamato_ was still in orbit. The two ships docked and a few minutes later found Sora and the others in _The Yamato _strategy room with Captain Okita delivering a report of what they had found. Yuki and Shima were also in the war room as well.

"So there's another power out there with nuclear capabilities," said Captain Okita after reviewing the data Sora and the others gathered, "and Gamilus may not be responsible for it."

"What we want to know is if there's another race dark enough to control The Heartless," said Riku.

"And we also what to know what you think about the idea of teaming up with Gamilus," said Sora.

"Don't tell him like that!" said Tess.

"What's this about a an alliance with Gamilus?" an irate Okita asked.

"Are you kidding?" Shima asked.

"How could you even think of such a thing!" Yuki asked.

"Well," said Sora sheepishly, "we thought that, if there is another Villian out there, then maybe humans and Gamilus are in the same boat."

"We're all in the same boat when it comes to The Heartless," said Kairi.

"Is it that terrible to even consider such an alliance, Captain?" Sanada asked, "we might be able to form a peace with Gamilus because of this."

"It is the logical path to take," said Analizer.

"Well I'm not feeling very logical right now," said Shima, "and I don't think the rest of the crew will like it either."

"I told you so," said Kodai.

"We should at least keep that option open," said Riku.

"You mean you should keep that option open," said Shima, "you guys are strangers here and don't have anything to lose when it comes to Gamilus. They've been trying to wipe us out for ten years, so I doubt that we'd be able to even consider working with the,."

"Okay, sorry we asked," said Sora, "but what there's still the Heartless of this universe."

"What are we going to do about that, Captain?" Yuki asked, "we can't just ignore this."

"Those Hakonians are still out there," said Kodai, "what about them?"

"Dr. Sado and the rest of the scientists onboard have been working on the information you gave us," said Captain Okita, "on that unusual element The Hakonians are interested in. It has some bizarre properties that have no useful purpose to human science."

"Hakonians are anything but human," said Aiden, "do you know that they crumble to dust when they die?"

"I didn't know that," said Kodai.

"How fascinating," said Dr. Sado.

"Indeed," said Sanada.

"Captain," said Shima, "Chief Tokugawa says that we'll be ready to Warp soon. Whatever we're going to do, we'll have to do it soon. We can't waste any more time."

"I told you that my modifications can enhance your engines," said Sidney, "didn't your engineers get to work on it yet?"

"Chief Tokugawa is still looking over the modifications," said Shima, "he likes them, but he wants to make sure that its safe first."

"Of course it's safe," a highly insulted Sidney said, "I wouldn't have given you the modifications if they weren't safe."

"But what are we going to do?" Yuki asked.

At that Captain Okita put his arms behind his back and looked at the tactical display on the floor that showed the local space, "do we stay and contend with this situation? Or do we carry on with our mission?"

Just then a loud klaxon sounded across the ship, "I think the answer was just given to us," said Riku.

Everyone rushed onto the bridge. Captain Okita got into the moving Captains seat, Yuki sat at the radar station, Shima at the helm, Kodai at the gunnery station and Sanada at the science station. Analyzer just stood off to one side.

"Report!" Captain Okita asked.

"There's a large Gamilus formation approaching from starboard!" said Yuki as she read the data on the radar display, "and The Hakonians are with them as well!"

"I'd say the question of wheatear or not Gamilus is interested in The Heartless has been answered," said Sanada.

"If our enemies are working together," said Kairi, "then we need to get back to our ship. If Gamilus and the Hakonians are going to attack, then we'll have to fight together."

"We'll stand a better chance with two ships," said Riku.

"Just as long as you don't think about running away," said Kodai.

"Are you kidding me?" an irate Tess asked, "I never run away from a fight if I can help it."

"Me neither," said Riku.

"Then what are you doing on my bridge when you should be on yours?" Captain Okita asked, "get back to your ship! Now!"

"Yes, sir!" said Sora, Riku, Kairi, Aiden, Donald, Goofy, Tess and Sidney. They all saluted and ran for the airlock.

* * *

><p>"The enemy has been sighted, Master Grekoir," said the lesser Hakonian at the tactical screen, "both the Keyblade Wielders and <em>The Yamato<em>. Rage…50,000 kilometers."

"Excellent," said Grekor, "yet I'm surprised that the two ships are still where we left them. Commander Heinz, what say you about his?"

The main screen had a smaller window opened, showing the Gamilus commander on his bridge, "_The Yamato _may be waiting for her engine to cool down. Our estimates say that The Wave Motion Engine needs a minimum of eight hours between Warp."

"You estimate?" Ikura asked.

"The enemy's FTL drive is based on Iscandar technology," said Commander Heinz, "while their technology is similar to that of Gamilus, there are subtitle differences that our scientists haven't been able to crack. My race has fought _The Yamato _on several occasions, and each time those human barbarians pull out another surprise that completely shatters whatever strategy used against them, so having a margin of error on their capabilities shouldn't be surprising."

"Well I for one intend to have no margin of error," said Grekor, "Maleficent has no tolerance for failure; several of my younger comrades can attest to that fact. No, this time around The Keyblade Brats will die, and _The Yamato _will be destroyed as well, just for fun."

"Fun is not a word I would ascribe to _The Yamato_," said an annoyed Commander Heinz, "far too many of my people have been killed trying to destroy that accursed ship. Lord Desler also has no tolerance for failure. Either my forces will return to Gamilus victorious, or we will not return at all. The invasion force assigned to the irradiation of Earth was given that very same choice when _The Yamato _threatened to leave their solar system, and thousands of my people were wiped out in a suicide attack that failed."

"We understand the position you are in," said Ikura, "which is why we're going to ensure that no more of your countrymen die needlessly. Based on the information of The Yamato that you provided us, I have devised a strategy that will neutralize _The Yamato's _greatest weapon; The Wave Motion. All the other weapons of _The Yamato _are inconsequential. All that is necessary to guarantee victory is to render The Wave Motion Gun useless."

"Such a tactical advantage would almost guarantee victory," said Commander Heinz, "but how can you neutralize The Wave Motion Gun?"

"By neutralizing The Wave Motion Engine," said Ikura as she smiled viciously, "without that machine, _The Yamato _cannot attack, or run away."

"Then we would definitely win," said Commander Heinz, "but how will you do it?"

"That's my dirty little secret, Heinz darling," said Ikura, "you just leave the crippling of _The Yamato _to me, and be prepared to slaughter the helpless humans. We'll handle the deaths of The Keyblade Wielders."

"Just tell us when your forces are ready to attack," said Commander Heinz, "we'll be ready on our end." With that the transmission ended.

"Just how are you going to cripple _The Yamato_?" Orkal asked, "that ship has a laser that blew up two of our ships and wiped out thousands of Heartless. How are you going to cripple them?"

"I'm curious to that as well," said Grekor.

"It's quite brilliant actually," said Ikura, "but it will require a small sacrifice on our part."

"What kind of sacrifice?" Grekor asked suspiciously.

"My plan involves firing a beam of dark magic at _The Yamato_," said Ikura, "a beam that will act as an electromagnetic pulse. Naturally, _The Yamato _will be shielded against normal electromagnetic energy, otherwise they wouldn't have survived this far into deep space. But my EMP will short out only The Wave Motion Engine."

"That may just work," said Grekor, "but what about the sacrifice?"

"All I ask is a small amount of the Uridium we've collected," said Ikura, "a mere ten kilograms will suffice."

"Out of the question!" exclaimed Grekor, "We're supposed to get that stuff for Maleficent, not blow it way blowing up brats!"

"This is why you'll never be anything but a grunt," said Ikura, "you fail to see things in the long run. We can easily recover the loss of Uridium once we've eliminated our enemies."

"A mere ten kilos wouldn't be difficult at all to make up for," said Grekor, "very well, Ikura, you will have your ten kilograms of Uridium. But this had better work, or else you will answer to Maleficent why you thought it was a good idea to waste resources."

"When I report to Maleficent on how I discovered a means to use a Synthesis item itself as a weapon," said a smugly smiling Ikura, "she will reward me greater than anything you can dream of. Oh wait, I forgot, you can't dream!" At that she laughed cruelly and left the bridge.

"Damn that woman!" snapped Grekor, "damn that temptress to the foulest pit of hell! May she be a plaything of Hades, or worse, a plaything of Cerberus!"

"You want me to send her to hell?" Orkal asked.

"No," said Grekor in a deflated tone, "she'd probably break you in half. Let's just get this damned mess over with. Tactical station…range to targets?"

"45,000 kilometers and closing," said the lesser Hakonian at the tactical station.

"Ikura has that long to do whatever she's going to do before we engage in combat," said Grekor, "inform the Gamilus forces to assume attack formation with our ships."

* * *

><p>"Both enemy fleets are assuming attack formations," said Sidney as Sora and the others took their positions on the bridge of The Intrepid Heart, "range, 43,000 kilometers and closing."<p>

"Detach us from _The Yamato_," said Sora, "and hail their bridge."

"Their on the line right now!" said Kairi as the two ships undocked. Riku piloted the ship away from _The Yamato _and assumed a defensive passion several hundred meters away next to the other ship. The forward screen then showed the bridge of _The Yamato_.

"Captain Okita," said Sora, "we're ready if you are."

"Our Black Tiger fighters are deploying as we speak," said Captain Okita.

A side window on the main screen showed an exterior view of the lower aft of _The Yamato_. The main hatch to the hanger was open and a dozen Black Tiger fighters were taking off and assuming a defensive formation around _The Yamato_.

"All our guns are fully charged and ready," said Kodai.

"How soon can you Warp out?" Aiden asked.

"Ten minutes at the earliest," said Shima, "I'm already preparing the calculations to get us out of here."

"We'll wait just long enough to recover our fighters," said Captain Okita, "then Warp out. We'll activate the subspace beacon when we emerge in real space again."

"So all we need to do is hold them off for ten minutes," said Kairi, "should be easy."

"We'll follow you in hyperspace once you're gone," said Sora, "until then, good luck, Captain."

"Good luck, Captain Sora," said Okita. He and Sora then saluted each other and the transmission ended.

"Ten minutes," said a slightly disappointed Tess, "that doesn't give us much time to fight."

"We can't get into too many fights on our travels," said Riku, "being a Keyblade Wielder means you end up meddling in the affairs of other worlds, whether you want to or nor. Our being in this universe carries a lot of risks."

"Just being here could cause _The Yamato _to fail in her mission," said Kairi. "And besides, even though they're out to conquer the universe, we can't fight Gamilus on the same level as _The Yamato _has been. They're not our real enemies."

"They should be!" Tess insisted, "I've seen what those who abuse power do to those who are without power. Gamilus is just another tyrant who has thrown its weight around a universe. They're responsible for the deaths of millions of people, and that's just on one planet. Who knows how many other worlds they've destroyed and how many people they've murdered or enslaved. I say we fight with everything we have and help defeat them!"

"Even if we do defeat them," said Aiden, "something else may come along and inhibit _The Yamato_. You can't gain anything without giving something in return. Equivalent exchange; 'to obtain, something of equal value must be lost.'"

"Are you going to spout rhetoric from your world all the time?" Tess asked as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Only when he has to," said Riku, "you'll get used to it."

"That reminds me," said Kairi to Tess, "when we have the time, I'm going to start getting rid of those scars of yours."

"I almost forgot about that," said a slightly astonished Tess. Sora and the others would be hard pressed to forget the fact that Tess's vicious imprisonment and torture by the minions of Phobos when she was 11 left her whole body below her neck heavily scarred. Kairi promised to heal the scars and help Tess live with some semblance of normalcy.

"I hate to ruin the mood," said Sidney, "but the enemy formations are gaining speed. Range…20,000 kilometers. They should be in firing range soon."

"We'll worry about meddling in this universe later," said Sora, "one battle at a time. Let's just focus on this one."

"We only need to hold off the enemy until _The Yamato _is ready to Warp," said Riku.

"They'd better be ready soon," said Aiden as he saw a tactical display, "the enemy is getting ready to surround us."

* * *

><p>"All Hakonian ships and Gamilus ships are in position," said the lesser Hakonian at the tactical station.<p>

On the main screen Commander Heinz stood waiting, "whatever you Hakonians are going to do, you'd better do it before _The Yamato _makes her move."

"We'll be ready," said Grekor, "just hold position for another minute."

He then turned to an intercom microphone, "Ikura, you'd better do whatever you're going to do, or I'll throw you out the airlock!"

"Then how am I going to explain to Maleficent the failure?" Ikura asked, "I've already integrated the Uridium into the ship's deflector array. Just target _The Yamato _and hit the gray button."

"You heard her!" said Orkal at the helmsman, "aim the ship's deflector array at _The Yamato_! Now!"

The Hakonian command ship rotated the deflector a few degrees until it was lined up with _The Yamato_.

* * *

><p>"What are they doing?" Kairi asked, "are they going to fire some sort of death ray?"<p>

"I don't want to find out," said Sora. He then signaled _The Yamato_, "they're up to something! Don't stand still!"

The crew of The Yamato had also noticed the reorientation of the Hakonian command ship "Shima!" shouted Captain Okita, "evasive maneuvers!"

"Yes, Captain!" said Shima as he activated the ship's thrusters, causing _The Yamato _to move.

* * *

><p>"Do it now!" shouted Grekor. The lesser Hakonian at the proper station hit the gray button and the ship's deflector array fired a dark purple beam of dark magic at The <em>Yamato<em>. The bigger ship had moved enough so that the beam only grazed the ship, but it was enough to leave the ship dead in space.

"They're helpless!" Grekor shouted triumphantly, "all Hakonians and Heartless, attack! Commander Heinz! Order your forces to attack! Attack! ATTACK!"

* * *

><p>"What did they do?" Sora asked.<p>

"They used some form of dark magic to short out The Wave Motion Engine," said Kairi as she read the sensor data, "like an electromagnetic pulse."

"We still have communications with them," said Sidney, "channel open."

"Captain!" said Sora, "is everyone alright there?"

"The crew is unharmed as far as we can tell," said Captain Okita, "that beam only grazed us, but it damaged The Wave Motion Engine. We're on emergency power only."

"We're down to communications, life support and gravity," said Sanada, "all other systems are offline."

"We can't maneuver or fire our weapons!" said an irate and distraught Kodai, "we're helpless!"

"We've failed," said Shima in a hopeless tone, "Earth is doomed."

"No you're not!" said Aiden in a defiant tone, "is The Wave Motion Engine still in one piece? Or do you have all the pieces?"

"We'll patch you through with Chief Tokugawa," said Yuki. A second later the voice of the chief engineer of _The Yamato _could be heard on the forward screen.

"We've lost primary and secondary power," said Chief Tokugawa, "but The Wave Motion engine itself is still in one piece. To make it simple, the engine shorted out."

"I can fix it!" said Aiden, "just get me to the engine room of _The Yamato _and I can fix The Wave Motion Engine!"

"We can't risk docking with _The Yamato_!" said Riku, "both enemy fleets are about to attack! It'll take everything we've got and everything the Black Tiger fighters have just to keep The Heartless away from _The Yamato_!"

"Did you guys forget the manuals already?" Sidney asked, "this ship has a transporter!"

"Then beam me into their engine room!" said Aiden as he ran off the bridge. He ran back in two seconds later, "where's the transporter?"

"Follow me!" said Sidney, "I'll beam you over." She quickly showed Aiden to the transporter room. He stood on the raised platform that was the transporter and Sidney, through her cybernetic circuits, beamed Aiden into the engine room of _The Yamato_, where a dumbfounded Chief Tokugawa stood in front of the crippled Wave Motion Engine.

"How did you get here?" Chief Tokugawa asked.

"Never mind," said Aiden as he walked towards the Wave Motion Engine, "are you sure it's in one piece?"

"The machinery is intact," said Chief Tokugawa, "it's the circuitry that's been destroyed."

"I can definitely fix that," said Aiden. He then spoke telepathically to Sora, Riku and Kairi, _:I can definitely fix The Wave Motion Engine, but it's a big machine, and I've never tried to repair anything this big.:_

_:How long do you need?: _Sora asked.

_:As much time as you can give me,: _said Aiden, _:I honestly don't know how long it'll take.:_

_:Do what you can,: _said Riku, _:We'll keep you covered.:_

_:Right,: _said Aiden. He then spoke aloud, "I'll work as fast as I can." He then took out several sticks of chalk, "if I'm going to do this right, I'll need the biggest transmutation circle known to Alchemy, a Grand Arcadium, and I'll have to make it big enough to encircle the machine." With that he started drawing the transmutation circle around The Wave Motion Engine.

"How long did Aiden say he needed?" Tess asked as she regulated the power to the weapons, charging the lasers and missiles with magic, while Goofy locked onto and shot at several waves of incoming Heartless. Riku then evaded several attacking Heartless and aimed the ship and a Heartless formation that was heading in a different directing, getting behind them in the process.

"He doesn't know how long it'll take to fix The Wave Motion Engine," said Sora, "we need to hold out until he's done!"

"How exasperating!" said Donald as he kept watch on the balance reading of the power core.

"I've got one of the Hakonian ships in sight!" said Kairi, "it's going for _The Yamato_!"

* * *

><p>"One of our ships is heading for <em>The Yamato<em>," said an irate Grekor, "I thought I made it clear that we were to focus on The Keyblade Brats!"

Just then Commander Heinz appeared on the forward screen, "I thought you said that your forces would focus on the Keyblade Wielders and my taskforce would destroy _The Yamato_. I suggest you order your ship to fall back."

"I'll be sure to chastise the overeager captain of that ship," said Grekor. Just then the tactical display showed _The Intrepid Heart _attacking the Hakonian ship in question. _The Intrepid Heart _then fired all her weapons in one blast right at a critical point on the Hakonian ships' hull, overloading the ship's shields and damaging the engine, leading to a fatal engine failure and the ship exploded.

"Oh for the love of the darkness!" spat Grekor, "destroy them! Now!"

* * *

><p>"That's another Hakonian ship down," said Riku as he piloted the ship to avoid the debris from the destroyed ship, then lined the <em>Intrepid Heart <em>up with another cluster of space born Heartless, which Goofy targeted and destroyed.

"And the rest are coming after us!" said Tess as she read the tactical screen. True enough, the remaining Hakonian ships and the rest of the space born Heartless were chasing after _The Intrepid Heart_.

"How's _The Yamato _doing?" Sora asked. He and the others then held on as Riku pulled the ship through a hard right turn to avoid a laser blast from one of the pursuing Hakonian ships.

"They're still dead in space!" said Kairi as she read the sensor data, "Aiden's sure taking his sweet time! The Gamilus ships haven't moved in yet, their fighters are still fighting the fighters from _The Yamato_."

Riku took a quick glance at the tactical screen, "I'll say this for the pilots from _The Yamato_, they're a lot better than the Gamilus pilots."

The tactical display showed gold dots that represented the fighters from The Yamato, while dark blue dots represented the Gamilus fighters. There were a lot more blue dots than gold, but the gold dots were flying rings around the blue dots, while the blue dots were blinking out one by one.

But then one of the gold dots vanished from the screen. "We just lost a friend," said Tess in a grave tone.

Then another and another _Yamato _fighter was destroyed.

"Either the enemy is getting smarter," said Riku, "or the fighters from _The Yamato_ are running out of energy."

_:Aiden!: _said Kairi, _:Are you done yet!:_

_:I'm not even halfway finished drawing the Grand Arcadium circle around the engine,: _said an irate Aiden, _:I need more time!:_

_:I don't think we have that much time,:_ said Riku. He then spoke aloud as he looked at the tactical screen, "some of the Gamilus capital ships is heading for The _Yamato_."

* * *

><p>"Master Grekor," said the lesser Hakonian at the tactical station, "some of the Gamilus ships is moving to attack <em>The Yamato<em>."

The tactical display on the main screen showed one of the Gamilus cruisers moving towards _The Yamato_, followed by two destroyers.

"Then _The Yamato _is doomed," said Grekor, "and the destruction of The Keyblade Wielders is just as assured. With _The Yamato _destroyed, we can all focus on the brats."

* * *

><p>"Can't we do anything!" Sora asked as Riku pulled the ship through more evasive maneuvers.<p>

"We're a little busy trying to stay alive ourselves!" said Tess.

"Wait a second," said Kairi, "one of _The Yamato _fighters is heading for the three Gamilus ships."

"But that's suicide!" said Tess, "a single fighter will get vaporized if it attacks three capital ships!"

"I think that's what he's doing," said Riku in a grave tone, "I think that pilot is doing a kamikaze run!"

"A what?" Tess asked.

"A suicide attack," said Kairi gravely.

Sure enough, the single Black Tiger fighter aimed for the Gamilus cruiser and rammed it. The damage from the fighter's destruction was enough to overload the systems on the enemy cruiser and it self destructed. The two destroyers tried to get away but debris from the cruiser hit the two ships, destroying one destroyer and crippling the other.

"I can't believe that just happened," said Sora, "nobody should have to sacrifice themselves like that."

"They're on the most important mission humanity of this universe has ever undertaken," said Riku, "they're trying to save their world. And if a handful need to be sacrificed in order to save the rest of humanity, and their world, then so be it. I don't like it, but what's done is done."

"I don't think any more suicide runs will make much of a difference," said Tess as she pointed at the tactical screen.

* * *

><p>"The rest of the Gamilus taskforce is closing in on <em>The Yamato<em>," said the Hakonian at the tactical station.

"Looks like Commander Heinz isn't taking any more chances," said Ikura, "it's over for _The Yamato_."

In the engine room of _The Yamato_, Aiden feverishly worked to complete the oversized transmutation circle around _The Yamato_.

_:Aiden!: _Sora yelled psychically, _:you've got the rest of the enemy coming at you! Hurry up!:_

_:Don't yell at me!: _Aiden snapped. Two seconds later he finished drawing, "there. Everyone stand back!"

"Do as he says!" shouted Chief Tokugawa. Everyone in the engine room stood away from The Wave Motion Engine.

"Alright then," said Aiden as he pressed his wrists, "Let's do this!" he touched the Grand Arcadium circle and activated it. The engine room was then bathed in the yellow Alchemic light as Aiden's power repaired the Wave Motion Engine. Within seconds all the damage inflicted by the enemy's dark EMP was fixed and The Wave Motion Engine came online again.

"And that's that," said Aiden. He then passed out from exhaustion.

"Get Dr. Sado down here now!" shouted Chief Tokugawa.

* * *

><p>The bridge of <em>The Yamato <em>came alive as all of the systems reactivated. "All power has been restored!" said Sanada.

"Firing maneuvering thrusters!" said Shima.

"Captain!" exclaimed Yuki as she looked at the radar screen, "the entire Gamilus taskforce is coming towards us!"

"Signal all fighters to land at once!" shouted Captain Okita, "Shima, prepare to Warp! Kodai! Fire all guns! Fire the guns!"

"All guns fire!" shouted Kodai into the communications microphone. Outside the ship the shock cannons and pulse lasers fired at the incoming Gamilus ships. Three destroyer escorts, one destroyer, two light cruisers and one of the battle cruisers were destroyed by the first barrage from _The Yamato_, while the other cruisers and one of the battleships were damaged. The remaining Gamilus forces were drawing back from The Yamato.

"How soon until our fighters are all recovered?" Captain Okita asked.

"Less than two minutes, Captain," said Kodai, "the enemy is drawing back, but the Hakonian ships are still advancing."

* * *

><p>"Forget The Keyblade Brats!" snapped Grekor, "just destroy <em>The Yamato<em>! I want those humans to suffer!"

Just then a highly irater Commander Heinz called on the forward screen, "your plan has failed, Hakonians! Half my taskforce is either destroyed or damaged because of you!"

"My strategy was flawless!" said Ikura, "it was the brats, I'm sure they did something to restore power to _The Yamato_! If you should blame anyone, blame the Keyblade Wielders!"

"Oh I'll blame them," said Commander Heinz, "right after I blame you. I should have realized an alliance with outsiders was a bad idea. Lord Desler will hear of this!"

"We can still salvage the situation," said Grekor, "ignore _The Yamato_, just focus on The Keyblade Wielders."

"Didn't you just say to destroy _The Yamato_?" Orkal asked.

"Silence!" Grekor snapped. He then addressed Commander Heinz, "I understand that you are feeling for the loss of valuable soldiers and equipment."

"Those were my men who died, you alien bastard!" snapped Commander Heinz, "men whom I've fought alongside for years, who trusted me to lead them to victory and eventually home. Now they will never see our world again, and it's your fault!"

"But we can still save face with our respective masters," said Grekor, "we can still destroy our enemies."

"Yes," said Commander Heinz gravely, "we will destroy your enemies and mine. But know this. As soon as the mission is accomplished, as soon as _The Yamato _and that other ship are destroyed, I will destroy you!" With that the transmission abruptly ended.

"I think he hates us now," said Orkal.

"Gee, it must be 'obvious day' at 'camp stupid!'" said Ikura.

"Never mind all of that!" said Grekor, "just focus on destroying The Keyblade Brats!"

"But you just said to focus on _The Yamato_," said Orkal.

"I know what I said!" snapped Grekor, "just kill them!"

"But kill which ones?" Orkal asked.

"Just kill something!" snapped Grekor.

"Something's wrong," said Kairi as she looked at the tactical display, "neither enemy fleets are attacking. They're just standing there in space."

"Maybe they've learned their lesson," said an vindicated Donald.

"Or maybe they don't know what to do," said Goofy.

"I think that makes the most sense," said Tess, "now that _The Yamato _can fight back, they're not sure how to proceed.

"Then I think we should take advantage of the enemy's confusion," said Riku, "let's go before things get heated up again!"

"But we shouldn't run!" said Tess, "if the enemy's confused, then we should attack! If we run they'll only chase after us. We need to destroy them now!"

"But if we attack, then we risk destroying _The Yamato_," said Sora, "we can't do that to Kodai and the others, their mission is way too important. Let's just go."

"Go where?" Kairi asked.

"Somewhere _The Yamato _can proceed on her mission," said Riku, "we've involved _The Yamato _enough in our affairs. We'll figure out how to stop The Hakonians ourselves, somehow."

"Then let's focus on getting out of here," said Sora, "wait, shouldn't Aiden be telling us to beam him back?" He then used telepathy, _:Aiden? Are you done over on The Yamato? Aiden? Aiden!:_

"_Intrepid Heart _to _Yamato_," said Kairi through the communications terminal, "what's going on with Aiden?"

"_Yamato _to _Intrepid Heart_," said Yuki, "Aiden completely restored The Wave Motion, but it exhausted him. He's currently in our sickbay recovering."

"He was amazing," said Shima, "Chief Tokugawa said it wasn't like anything he'd ever seen before when Aiden used that power of his to fix The Wave Motion Engine."

"That's Alchemy for you," said Sora, "we'll be right over to pick him up. Riku, bring us closer to _The Yamato _so we can beam Aiden back."

"Rodger," said Riku as he did so.

"I don't think we'll have a chance to establish a transporter lock on Aiden," said Kairi as she looked at the tactical screen, "I think the enemy has made up their mind."

* * *

><p>"Just destroy them both!" Ikura snapped, "just move forward and attack both ships! Now! Or I'll castrate the both of you!" She then looked at the forward screen that had Commander Heinz on the line again, "and then I'll come over and castrate you as well, you blue-skinned bastard!"<p>

"Whatever you say," said a slightly nervous Commander Heinz, "all ships, advance and destroy!"

"The same with our ships!" said Grekor. With that the two fleets moved towards both _The Yamato _and _Intrepid Heart_.

* * *

><p>"They're coming right for us!" said Tess, "I told you we should have attacked them first!"<p>

"Well it's too late for that," said Riku, "Captain Okita, can you Warp out?"

"I'm already preparing to do so," said Shima, "it's just a matter of waiting for the right time, but we can warp inside a minute."

"I don't think you've got a moment," said Kairi.

"Just go!" said Sora, "we'll follow in hyperspace. Good luck, Captain."

"And to you, Captain," said Captain Okita.

On the bridge of _The Yamato_, Shima hunched over his consul, waiting for the right moment in time to send _The Yamato _through space and time. On his screen a light was moving up and down over display that showed time waves. He was waiting for the right moment when the time waves converged, "another 30 seconds."

"All hands!" said Captain Okita into a shipwide intercom, "prepare to Warp!"

In the infirmary, Aiden was just regaining his senses when he heard Okita's warning.

"Wait," said a still groggy Aiden as he tried to get off the examination table he was on, "I have to get back to my ship!"

"I'm afraid you're not going anywhere, young man," said Dr. Sado as he and a nurse helped Aiden lay back down on the table, "you're in no condition to leave yet."

"But I can't be here," said Aiden as he tried to get up again, only to be pushed down again by the doctor and nurse, "my friends!"

On the FTL console, the light then touched the converging lines, "now!" shouted Shima, "Warp!" he pressed the button.

* * *

><p>From the point of view of everyone onboard The Intrepid Heart, <em>The Yamato <em>seemed to shimmer and vanish out of reality, "did they Warp?" Sora asked.

"I'm detecting a raised level of tachyon energy," said Sidney, "they did indeed Warp."

"And they took Aiden with them as well," said Kairi, "he's not going to like that."

* * *

><p>"<em>The Yamato <em>just vanished, Master Grekor," said the lesser Hakonian at the sensor screen.

"I can see that!" snapped Grekor as he pointed to an empty spot on the forward screen.

"The human's luck still holds," said Commander Heinz, "but it's not a total loss. There's still the other humans."

"That's right!" said Grekor, "destroy the brats! Surround and destroy them! Destroy The Keyblade Wielders!"

"Finally, he makes up his mind," said Orkal.

* * *

><p>"Do we have their transponder signal yet?" Sora asked, "we can't use our own FTL until we know where to go."<p>

"I'm not reading the subspace beacon yet," said Sidney, "they're probably still disoriented from traversing hundreds of light years in the blink of an eye."

"I can only imagine how rough that must be for Aiden," said Kairi. She then saw the two enemy fleets converging on them, "oh crap! They're coming again!"

"They'll have us surrounded in less than a minute!" said Tess.

"Sidney, where's that transponder signal!" Riku asked as he tried to get _The Intrepid Heart_ away from the rapidly encircling enemy ships and Heartless, but they were too many and moving too fast.

"I'm reading the signal!" said Sidney, "it's closer than I thought it would be, but it's there!"

"Plot a course and jump to hyperspace!" said Sora, "get us out of here!"

"Course locked in!" said Riku as he worked faster than he thought he could, "jumping to hyperspace…now!" With that _The Intrepid Heart _leapt into hyperspace.

* * *

><p>"They're gone," said Orkal, "great, now what are we going to do?"<p>

"You idiots can do whatever you want," said Commander Heinz, "I unfortunately have the unpleasant duty of reporting this fiasco to Lord Desler. It'll probably mean my head on a platter, and my men will be severely punished as well, but at least we will be doing our duty." With that the transmission ended.

"We also have an unfortunate duty," said Ikura, "Maleficent will be expecting a progress report, and she did not send us here to waste our resources chasing after The Keyblade Brats."

At that Grekor sighed, "I will deliver the unfortunate news to Maleficent. She'll probably skin me alive for this, but there's still a chance to salvage the situation. Ikura, scout the surrounding systems for Uridium. We may be behind the mining schedule, but there's still time to make our quota."

"What about me?" Orkal asked.

"Just stay where you are, you useless buffoon," said Grekor.

* * *

><p>To Aiden, Warping was like getting split in two and forced back together, followed by floating upside down for an hour, followed by being turned inside out, all the while the colors he was seeing kept changing wildly. The weird and unpleasant sensations lasted for what seemed an eternity, but when he suddenly felt normal, he realized that less than a second had passed.<p>

"Feeling better?" Dr. Sado asked.

"Much better," said Aiden as he sat up, "do you go through all that whenever you Warp?"

"It's only that crazy when you Warp for the first time," said Dr. Sado as he smiled, "you'll get used to it."

"I'll stick with normal hyperspace, thank you very much," said Aiden as he tried to stand up, but he still felt exhausted from his gargantuan alchemic work.

"You're still exhausted," said Dr. Sado, "here," he then grabbed a nearby bottle of sake, "this will help get your energy levels up in no time!"

"Never before five with me," said an uncomfortable sounding Aiden as he refused the sake bottle. In truth, although he never told Sora and the others, Aiden can from a family that were strict teetotalers, in more ways than one. Aiden hated all forms of recreational drugs, from alcohol to tobacco, from marijuana to heroine to LSD and beyond.

"Suit yourself," said Dr. Sado as he eagerly helped himself to the sake, "more for the rest of us."

'If you don't mind," said Aiden as he carefully made his way across the sickbay to the door that lead to the hallway, "I'd like to get to the bridge. My friends will be looking for me and I'd like be there when we make contact with them."

On the bridge the crew recovered from the effects of Warping with the ease of practice, "That was wasn't so bad as the others," said Kodai, "did you do something, Shima?"

"I'd like to know that myself," said Captain Okita, "Shima, status report."

"Captain, I did do something differently this time," said Shima, "we're still on course for Iscandar, but instead of the normal 1,200 light year Warp, I only took us 600 light years."

"Why only 600 light years?" Yuki asked.

"To help Sora and the others find us quicker," said Sanada, "and to confuse the enemy. No doubt by now Gamilus knows that we Warp in increments of 1,200 light years, so they'll have a search radius of that far. With only a Warp of half that distance, we'll be inside their search radius and can slip away when the Wave Motion Engine is ready."

"Something like that," said Shima in a modest tone, "you didn't exactly give any specifics as to how far we were to go this time, Captain."

"That I didn't," said Captain Okita, "still, good job showing ingenuity in the face of danger, Shima. I'll note it in the log. Now, would you mind telling us where we are so I can record our position in the log as well?"

"I'll get right on it, Captain!" said Shima. He then activated the forward view screen, showing a green and blue planet with several rings and four small moons. The planet was orbiting twin yellow stars at a distance that gave the planet a pleasant climate.

"What a beautiful world," said Yuki.

"It's nice," said Aiden as he and a slightly tipsy Dr. Sado walked onto the bridge, "but call be crazy, but I've got a bad feeling about this place. There's something wrong, I just know it."

* * *

><p>On the far reaches of the solar system that <em>The Yamato <em>just entered, creatures cold and remorseless towards those they perceived their enemies observed the newly arrived Yamato, observed and debated on what to do about it. The bridge of their ship was dimly lit and the controls were circular shaped, as if something round was meant to manipulate them. In the background the machinery of the ship produced a low double beeping that was almost hypnotic.

At first what could be seen of the creatures was each a single blue light that glowed without emotion.

"AN UNIDENTIFIED VESSEL HAS ARRIVED IN THE TARGET SYSTEM," said one of the creatures as they observed _The Yamato _on their view screen, when it spoke, two smaller white lights above the blue light flashed with each syllable.

"THE UNIDENTIFIED SHIP POSSESSES TECHNOLOGY UNKNOWN TO US," said another of the creatures, "THEY USE A DIFFERENT METHOD OF FASTER THAN LIGHT TRAVEL."

"THEY ARE AN UNKNOWN ELEMENT," said a third creature, "UNKNOWN ELEMENTS ARE TO BE EXTERMINATED!"

"NOT YET," said a fourth creature. This one moved into a more brightly light part of the bridge, revealing a mehcanoid that vaguely resembled a human-sized salt and pepper shaker. It had a black metal casing with a round, rotating top that had a long stalk that had the glowing blue eye and two smaller lights on top that flashed when it talked. The lower part of the body was much longer in the front and was covered in hemispherical bumps. It had a plunger-like manipulator arm on the left and an energy weapon on the right.

"WE WILL INVESTIGATE THIS VESSEL," said the creature, "WE WILL EXTRACT ALL KNOLEGE THAT CAN BE EXTRACTED. WE WILL LEARN ABOUT THE SPECIES THAT USES THIS SHIP. IF THEY ARE USEFUL THEN THEY WILL BE USED. THEN, WHEN THEY HAVE SERVED THEIR PURPOSE, WHEN THEY ARE OF NO FURTHER USE, THEN AND ONLY THEN WILL THEY BE EXTERMINATED!"

"WE OBEY!" said the other two creatures. The first creature spoke further, "WE WILL NOT BE DETERED FROM OUR MISSION. DALEKS WILL NOT BE DETERED! DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!"

All the creatures, Daleks, then began chanting, "DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY! DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!"

**The end of chapter 5.**

That's right, the baddies from Doctor Who are none other than The Daleks! But what are they doing in the universe of _Space Battleship Yamato_? And what diabolical plan are they concocting? And what will they do to our heroes? You'll just have to wait to find out. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!


	6. Chapter 6: The Battle of Micandor

Last time found our heroes fighting alongside _The Yamato_ against the combined forces of Hakonians, Heartless and Gamilus. The situation was made even more dire when the Hakonians used a dark EMP weapon that disabled _The Yamato's _Wave Motion Engine, leaving the great ship dead in space. Aiden beamed over to repair the Wave Motion Engine, while Sora and the others held off the two dark armadas. Aiden succeeded in fixing the engine, but was left exhausted by his efforts. With Aiden confined to sickbay, _The Yamato _Warped to safety, while Sora and the others followed in _The Intrepid Heart _through hyperspace, leaving the Hakonians and Gamilus leaders to explain their failure to their respective masters.

_The Yamato _then arrived in a system that has been targeted by the most diabolical, most hateful race that has ever existed; The Daleks. 'Nuff said, on with the show!

**Chapter 6: The Battle of Micandor**

"We're coming up on their location," said Riku, "exiting hyperspace…now." The ship then resumed normal spaceflight. Sora and the others found themselves in a star system with two yellow suns. The sensors of _The Intrepid Heart _showed that _The Yamato _was in orbit around a blue and green planet with several rings and four small moons.

"I hope Aiden's okay," said Kairi as Riku piloted the ship towards _The Yamato_.

"He's alright," said Sora, "if there's one thing about Aiden, he's tough."

"I'm tougher," said Tess.

"We know that," said Riku.

Just then they got a signal from _The Yamato_, "glad you guys could make it," said Kodai.

"You guys kinda made it easy for us to find you," said Sora.

"Why'd you only Warp 600 light years?" Riku asked, "you could have gone the full 1,200."

"That would be Shima's idea," said Captain Okita.

"We're sure that by now Gamilus knows how far the Wave Motion Engine can take us," said Shima, "so I figured to only Warp half as far as usual, while the enemy will be looking for us much further away. Once we're able to Warp again, we'll be farther away from the enemy, while they're still looking for us in the wrong place."

"That's brilliant," said Riku, "wish I had thought of that."

"How's Aiden doing?"

"Better now that I don't feel like I'm coming undone," said Aiden, "I can tell you this, guys, Warping isn't for me."

"I told you it takes some getting used to," said a slightly tipsy Dr. Sado.

"I've never felt any ill effects from Warping," said Analyzer.

"Well I guess that makes you special," said an annoyed Sidney.

"We'll pull alongside and dock in a minute," said Riku.

"We're looking forward to seeing you again," said Yuki. With that the transmission ended.

"Now if we can just figure out what the Hakonians are up to," said Sora, "and just what that weird element they want is all about, then we'd be able to beat them, somehow."

"And the sooner we stop whatever the Hakonians are planning," said Riku as he piloted the ship towards the docking hatch of _The Yamato_, "the sooner _The Yamato _can continue on her mission. The longer we're here, the greater the risk of us inadvertently causing them to fail."

"We know that," said Tess, "so as soon as we're all together again, we'll come up with a plan to take out the Hakonians. I've already got a few ideas."

"We're all anxious to hear them," said Kairi, but her mind was somewhere else, or rather, her senses, "am I the only one who feel that there's something wrong with this place? This solar system I mean."

"I'm also feeling like there's something wrong," said Riku.

"Same here," said Sora, "Tess? Are you feeling it?"

"I'm feeling…something, alright," said Tess in a slightly nervous tone, "something evil. Back on Metamore, when I was killing Phobos' minions as The Razor, every now and then I'd get this feeling that I was in grave danger. I'd always get this feeling whenever one of Phobos' more dangerous creatures was close by. The feelings stopped when The Guardians saved my life and I started working with the rebels, but now," she stood up from her chair and walked towards the forward view screen which showed _The Yamato _orbiting the ringed planet, "now I feel like we're all in grave danger. The sooner we can leave the better."

"We can't leave until we pick up Aiden," said Sora, "and even then we can't leave. We can't just abandon _The Yamato _while her engine is recharging."

"Then they'd better charge the engine faster," said a now visibly afraid Tess, "we've got to get away from this place, and we have to go soon, before it's too late."

* * *

><p>"A SECOND UNIDENTIFIED SHIP HAS ASSUMED ORBIT AROUND THE TARGET WORLD," said one of the Daleks as they observed <em>The Intrepid Heart <em>docking with _The Yamato _on their view screen, "ITS TECHNOLOGY IS ALSO UNKNOWN TO OUR DATABANKS."

"WE SHOULD EXTERMINATE THEM ALL NOW!" said the second Dalek, "EXTERMINATE THEM BEFORE THEY DISCOVER US!"

"WE HAVE NOT BEEN DETECTED YET," said the third Dalek, "THESE VESSELS MAY HAVE TECHNOLOGY THAT WE CAN ADAPT TO OUR USES."

"AND WHAT IF THAT TECHNOLOGY IS A THREAT TO OUR SURVIVAL?" the fourth Dalek asked, "WHAT THEN?"

"THEN WE WILL EXTERMINATE THEM ALL," said the third Dalek, "BUT NOT BEFORE. UNTIL THEN WE WILL CONTINUE WITH THE OPERATION. THIS STAR SYSTEM HOLDS INFERIOR LIFE FORMS THAT ARE SCHEDULED FOR EXTERMINATION!"

"ORDER THE HEARTLESS TO DESCEND UPON THE PLANETS OF THIS SYSTEM!" said the first Dalek, "ALL LIFE FORMS ARE TO BE EITHER DESTROYED OR CONVERTED TO HEARTLESS."

"AND IF A WORLD IS ABLE TO RESIST THE HEARTLESS," said the second Dalek, "THEN THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED REGUARDLESS! EXTERMINATE!"

"EXTERMINATE!" shouted all the Daleks, "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

* * *

><p>"We lost several good men just now," said Captain Okita gravely as he, the senior officers of <em>The Yamato <em>and our heroes, including Sidney who was wearing her mobile emitter again, sat around the conference table in the captain's war room, "four brave pilots who gave their lives to protect this ship. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten!"

There was then a moment of silence for the four pilots who died during the battle with the Hakonian and Gamilus fleets.

"Very well," said Captain Okiata after the moment passed, "now, report."

"The Wave Motion Engine is functioning at optimum efficiency, Captain," said Chief Tokugawa, "what Mr. Mackenzie did to repair the damage not only did that, he also corrected several minor faults in the machine that have occurred since we left Earth. These faults aren't a danger to the engine or the ship, but they would have become so over time as we continued Warping."

"It's just simple Alchemy," said Aiden modestly, "the engine was still in one piece, despite the damage done by that dark EMP. I merely restored the machine to its original state."

"Nevertheless," said Captain Okita, "what you did was nothing less than outstanding. It shall be noted in the ships' log that you did service to this ship that was above and beyond the call of duty."

"Well, if you're going to give credit," said Aiden as she smiled eagerly, "I'll gladly take it."

"Don't let it get to your head," said Sora.

"All weapons are intact and fully functional," said Kodai as he continued the report, "if the enemy were to find us, we'd be more than ready to give them a warm welcome."

"Normal propulsion modes are at 100%, Captain," said Shima, "if there's going to be a battle, we'll run rings around the enemy. And we'll be able to Warp again in six and a half hours; a shorter Warp, a shorter cool down time."

"Last radar sweep of the system showed no sign of either Hakonian or Gamilus activity, Captain" said Yuki, "as for the star system, we're in orbit of the fifth of twelve planets; four are closer to the sun and seven further out. Five of the others further from the suns are gas giants, each one containing dozens of small to medium-sized moons. The other two in the outer system have different bio-systems, but all can support carbon-based life forms.

"Two of the inner planets are too close to the suns for life, while the third is like Venus, with a runaway greenhouse effect going on. The fourth planet, and the fifth, are both Earth-like and show signs of intelligent life."

"Definitely worth looking into, Captain," said Sanada, "we have time to investigate. With your permission, Captain, I'd like to send several probes to the fourth and fifth planets."

"Permission granted," said Captain Okita, "and if there are edible plants in the uninhabited areas of those two worlds, let me know. We can always do with fresh food supplies."

"I can use the time we're here to enhance the Wave Motion Engine," said Sidney.

"And I can use the time to help someone I know," said Kairi as she looked at Tess, "and maybe upgrade your wardrobe while we're at it. Some of the worlds we visit can be pretty warm, and wearing clothes that completely cover your body just isn't practical on those worlds."

"It is on cold worlds," said Tess as she touched her jacket and long-sleeved shirt underneath, "it can get pretty cold on Metamore sometimes."

"We're not on Metamore anymore," said Riku, "you know that."

"Well if you are all going to work on projects," said Aiden, "I suggest you work fast. Call me crazy, but I've been feeling that there's something wrong with this place ever since we got here, this whole star system I mean."

"We all feel that way," said Sora. He then looked at Captain Okita in a serious manner, "Captain, "I don't know how much you and your people know about magic and other special powers, but my friends and I have both, and we've been sensing that something's wrong in this star system, something terribly wrong."

"Just what sort of wrongness are you sensing?" Captain Okita asked.

"And just what do you mean about magic and special powers?" Kodai asked.

"I can offer several definitions on the subjects," said Analyzer.

"I'll bet you could," said an annoyed Sidney.

"We don't know exactly what the danger is," said Riku, "only that it's real, and the longer we stay here, the closer we come to facing that danger, and I don't think this is a danger we can come out of in one piece."

At that Captain Okita closed his eyes in thought, "very well, we will leave as soon as The Wave Motion Engine is ready."

"Captain!" said a slightly offended Sanada, "you can't be taking this seriously! I mean, magic and super powers? And premonitions of an unknown danger? Of all the illogical nonsense!"

"I'm partial to agree, Captain," said Yuki, "we've seen some amazing things since leaving Earth, and the concept of The Heartless alone is enough to expand ones horizons about what is real and what is make believe. But there are some things that are just too impossible to believe in."

"But magic is a part of life," said Sora, "it's everywhere, even in places where nobody believes in it."

"What he said!" said Donald, while Goofy nodded in agreement.

_:Whatever you do,: _said Riku, _:don't mention Tinkerbell or any of the other fairies. It's bad enough that these people have been through hell on their world. They've almost lost all hope. Mentioning fairies and other magical creatures will just make them think we're crazy.:_

_:Right,: _sad Sora. He then spoke aloud, "alright then, I'll prove that my friends and I have special powers. First of all, anybody have something to write on?"

"Will this do?" said Yuki as she handed Sora a data pad and a stylus pen.

"Thanks," said Sora, "Kairi, stand behind me please."

"Sure," said Kairi as she stood up and turned around so she and Sora were facing opposite directions. Sora then wrote something on the data pad, "what does it say?"

"It says our names," said Kairi, "'Sora, Riku, Kairi, Aiden, Donald, Goofy and Tess,' in that order."

"Parlor tricks," said an unbelieving Sanada.

"I disagree," said Dr. Sado, "when young Aiden was unconscious from his exhaustion, which was caused by his remarkable ability that fixed our engine, yes, I accept it as Alchemy. Anyway, I had the opportunity to examine Aiden, and I found some remarkable genes in his DNA that don't correspond with anything found on our world. If there are genetic codes for magic and other powers, then what I saw proves it."

"And we are from another universe," said Riku, "our technology proves that."

"If you want more proof," said Kairi, "wait until someone on _The Yamato _has to visit the infirmary because of an accident. I can heal just about any wound. In fact, Tess, let me see your arm."

Reluctant to reveal her scars in front of _The Yamato _officers, Tess slowly took off her gloves, then her jacket and pushed up the left sleeve of her shirt. _The Yamato _crewmembers were shocked to see the extensive scars across the back of Tess' hand and all over her arm.

"I wish this was the worse of what was done to me," said Tess in a mildly embarrassed tone. She then looked at Kairi with hopeful eyes, "can you really make them go away?"

"We won't know if I don't try," said Kairi as she cracked her knuckles, "alright, let's do this!"

"That's my line!" said Aiden as Kairi used her healing magic on Tess. Her hand and arm was bathed in the white healing light.

"What's happening?" an amazed and confused Yuki asked.

"Unknown energy is being produced from subject Kairi," said Analyzer as his internal scans activated.

Before the awed eyes of the _Yamato _officers, Kairi's magic began removing the scars inflicted on Tess. Within minutes her hand and arm up to her elbow was completely healed.

Kairi then sat back and sighed with relief, her forehead beaded with sweat, "I'm sorry, but that's all I can do for now. For some reason, healing old wounds takes more out of me than new wounds."

"It's alright," said Tess in a distant tone as she looked at her restored hand and forearm, "it's a good start," she then looked at a brown mark on the back of her hand and smiled in surprise, "I forgot I had a birthmark."

Riku looked and saw that the mark on Tess' hand vaguely looked like a key, or rather…"a Keyblade?"

"I guess so," said Aiden as he looked at the mark.

"It doesn't look like a Keyblade to me," said Sora as he looked at the mark.

"Tilt your head," said Kairi as she looked at the mark.

Sora then looked at the mark from a different angle, "oh yeah, it does look like a Keyblade."

"What's a Keyblade?" Kodai asked.

At that Sora and the others smiled, "I'm glad you asked," said Sora.

* * *

><p>"And so you failed to fulfill the Uridium quota," said an irate Maleficent via a large crystal ball to Grekor, "and squandered a portion of what you've acquired, and for what? To destroy one pathetic human starship?"<p>

"Great one, please understand," said Grekor in a placating tone, while Ikura and Orkal knelt beside him, "_The Yamato _possesses a weapon of unparallel power. We had to neutralize their energy source before we could destroy them, or risk our destruction in the process. Our new allies, Gamilus, wouldn't join us in battle with _The Yamato _and the Keyblade brats unless we could disable The Wave Motion Gun. Besides, it was Ikura's plan to waste the Uridium."

"And it was a good plan!" snapped Ikura as she stood up, "mistress of all evil, I admit that I did not take into account the resourcefulness of the humans of this universe."

"I doubt that the local humans could have countered dark magic so quickly," said Maleficent, "no, The Keyblade Alchemist, was responsible for restoring the power of the human ship. I had made it clear before that that one, Aiden Mackenzie, was to be taken alive! The other whelps are to be destroyed, but I need The Keyblade Alchemist alive!"

"We understand, oh great and terrible Maleficent," said Grekor, "we will do all that you ask. But I must request additional Heartless support, as well as Nobodies."

"If you desire assistance," said Maleficent, "then you should request more of your people to come as well."

"I…yes, great one," said Grekor reluctantly, "it's just that…"

"Just what?" Maleficent asked.

"It's just that there's so few of us Hakonians left," said Ikura, "we had to 'draft' several of our lesser comrades in order to have full crews for this venture. If we were to ask for more of our comrades, then our leaders will…"

"I am your leader!" snapped Maleficent, "you pledged your loyalty the moment your people settled on The World that Never Was! You are mine to do with as I see fit! And I see fit that you shall have reinforcements, in terms of Heartless, Hakonians and Nobodies. Yes, you shall have Nobodies."

"We will?" Orkal asked.

"I have one spare controlling ring," said Maleficent, "and one of your comrades will have it when he arrives with the reinforcements."

"Which one of our comrades will be coming?" Ikura asked.

Just then a man in his late 50's with graying black hair and black eyes appeared next to Maleficent. He wore a gray and brown cloak and carried a black staff carved with gold runes.

"Hello, friends," said the man as he smiled viciously.

"Trakinor!" snapped an outraged Grekor.

"Trakinor Darkwind?" Ikura asked, "I thought you died. Eaten alive by the giant psychic spiders of Metebilis Three."

"I am far from dead," said the man with the black and gold staff, Trakinor Darkwind, "I was merely procuring the means of furthering the darkness," he looked at Maleficent, "as you predicted, oh mistress of all evil, the demon sightings are increasing in frequency. The fell creatures are indeed searching for something; what it is, I do not know yet."

"The reason for the demons' questing shall be revealed in good time," said Maleficent, "for now I have a new task for you, Trakinor Darkwind. You are to go through the rift to the other universe and acquire the Uridium needed for further Nobody controlling rings.

"You are to also destroy The Keyblade Wielders, as well as the other human vessel, The Yamato. To complete your task," she then summoned a large white ring, "you shall be gifted with this item that will establish control over Nobodies."

"I cannot express my gratitude enough, great one," said Trakinor as he accepted the ring. He then placed it around his wrist and it flashed darkly.

"Then go," said Maleficent, "carry out your duty to the darkness."

"I live only to serve you, oh great and terrible Maleficent," said Trakinor as he bowed and left the view of the crystal ball.

"Of all the rotten luck," muttered Grekor.

"Is there a problem?" Maleficent asked.

"No problem, great one," said Grekor.

Just then one of the lesser Hakonians whispered something to Ikura. She scowled at the subordinate, "you tell that blue-skinned idiot that we don't have time to argue over every single detail!"

"But mistress Ikura," said the lesser Hakonian, "Commander Heinz says that it's imperative that you respond. He says that Lord Desler wishes to speak with you."

"What is this?" an intrigued Maleficent asked, "the leader of your new 'allies' wishes to speak with you? Well then, let us not keep him waiting."

"You wish to speak with Lord Desler yourself, Maleficent?" Grekor asked.

"Indeed I do," said Maleficent.

"Very well then," said Grekor. He then turned to the lesser Hakonian, "inform Commander Heinz that we will speak with Lord Desler at his connivance."

A minute later the main view screen activated, showing Lord Desler on his throne on Gamilus.

The insidious leader of Gamilus looked across time and space onto the Hakonian bridge and saw Maleficent in the crystal ball, "I do believe I have the honor and privlige of addressing The Mistress of all Evil."

"That you do, Lord Desler," said Maleficent, "I believe we have much to discuss."

While Maleficent and Lord Desler discussed matters of darkness, Commander Heinz spoke to Ikrua, Grekor and Orkal on a secondary communications screen, "I've been threatened with decapitation if we fail to destroy _The Yamato_. What of you?"

"We haven't been threatened by a specific punishment yet," said Ikura, "and we probably won't, not as long as Maleficent is distracted by Lord Desler."

"Then we both may come out of this in one peace," said Commander Heinz, "and without having more of our respective people killed. Lord Desler said he'd send reinforcements, more than enough firepower to wipe out _The Yamato_."

"We're also going to get reinforcements," said Orkal, "but we've been waiting here for so long, it'll take forever to find our enemies."

"Not really," said Commander Heinz, "our scientists have estimated that _The Yamato_ has a Warp radius of 1,200 light years. It will be several hours before the humans can warp again, so with the reinforcements, we can cover a proper search area."

"That will still take too long," said an irate Ikura, "I have a different method of finding our enemies, or rather, just the Keyblade brats. Their ship uses hyper drive, and all hyper drive engines produce specific energy signatures that leave traces in space, even when in hyperspace. Our sensors can find these traces and we will follow them to the brats, and hopefully, to _The Yamato_."

"Why my dear Ikura," said a smiling Commander Heinz, "I could kiss you!"

"And suffer radiation sickness?" a disgusted Ikura asked, "I think not!"

"Then it is decided for now," said Maleficent to Lord Desler, "our two forces will cooperate until the destruction of our mutual enemies, for _The Yamato_ ship has become a nuisance to us as well."

"And we have decreed that The Keyblade Wielders are to be declared enemies of Gamilus as well," said Lord Desler, "our enemies will be destroyed. Once that goal has been accomplished, then further negotiations shall commence immediately."

"I look forward to the negotiations," said Maleficent, although the Hakonians present could tell that Maleficent was only waiting for the right time to exploit Gamilus.

"As do I," said Lord Desler, who was also waiting to exploit Maleficent.

With that Maleficent vanished from the crystal ball, while Lord Delser's transmission ended as well.

"How soon until reinforcements arrive?" Ikura asked.

"The new taskforce from Gamilus should arrive within the hour," said Commander Heinz, "that fleet will have its own commander, but I will still be incharge of all Gamilus forces in this venture."

"Our reinforcements should be here soon as well," said Grekor.

"Then I have that much time to lock in on the energy signature of the brats' ship," said Ikura. With that she sat at the scanner terminal and began sweeping for our heroes' trail.

* * *

><p>"Unbelievable!" said an astonished Sanada, "those swords! You can make them appear and disappear at will!"<p>

"That's nothing compared to what else we can do," said Aiden. He and the others had just finished showing off their Keyblades to the senior officers of _The Yamato_.

"Then there's no denying it," said Shima, "where you guys are from, magic is real."

"I never doubted it for a second," said Kodai.

"Sure you didn't," said Yuki.

"Yes, you people now believe in magic," said an impatient Tess, clearly the awe of having her arm healed by Kairi has worn off, "now can we please talk about getting out of this star system?"

"I'm convinced that you sense a danger to us all in this star system," said Captain Okita, "but you still don't know what that danger is, or from where it will come or when it will come. Where as this star system seems peaceful," he had a data print out of the fourth and fifth planets of the system, "and are civilized."

"We've detected radio transmissions from both planets," said Yuki, "both worlds are attempting deep-space travel and already have extensive long-range satellite communications. They have realized that we are here and have tried to communicate with us. Our computer is having trouble translating their languages, but if we stay long enough, we will be able to answer their calls."

"Let me have a look at their transmissions," said Sidney, "I can translate their words easily enough."

"I have been working on translating their languages since we began overhearing their transmissions," said Analyzer, "I already have the beginnings of their grammar understood."

"Well, aren't you special," said Sidney.

* * *

><p>"ALL PREPERATIONS FOR THE OPERATION ARE COMPLETE," said the first Dalek.<p>

"THEN COMMENCE THE OPERATION!" said the second Dalek, "UNLEASH THE HEARTLESS! DESTROY THE PLANETS! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

* * *

><p>Sidney was about to make another snappy comment, when Tess stood up, a horrified look on her face. "Oh no! Oh gods no! We have to get out of here! Now!"<p>

"Why?" a worried Riku asked, "what's wrong?"

Sidney then tensed, "long range sensors detecting massive amounts of Heartless entering the star system and converging on the planets, specifically the fourth through sevenths planets."

"The ones that have life on them," said Kairi.

Just then the klaxon alarm of _The Yamato _sounded and the voice of one of the bridge crewmembers could be heard on the intercom, "all senior officers to the bridge! We have an emergency! Repeat, we have an emergency!"

Everyone then ran onto the bridge and saw a tactical display of the solar system on the main view screen. Several dark masses were heading for the four planets that supported life in the system.

"They're Heartless alright," said Sora.

"How could the Hakonians have found us so quickly?" Kairi asked.

"I don't think these are controlled by the Hakonians," said Riku, "and I doubt Gamilus is involved. I think we've found the local Heartless."

"Or maybe they found us," said Kodai as he sat at his station, "Captain, all weapons report ready. The Black Tiger squad also reports ready to take off on your order."

"Wait a second," said Riku as he stood up and walked to the forward view screen, "if this is just The Heartless, then what was the source of those nuclear weapons?"

"I don't know," said Sora.

"Captain," said Yuki, "we have visual confirmation of The Heartless. I'm putting the images on the main screen now."

The forward screen showed not space-borne Heartless but thongs and hordes of Purebloods, such as Shadows, Neo Shadows, Invisibles and Darkballs. But among the masses of Heartless were creatures that Sora and the others hadn't seen before. The creatures had the markings of Emblem Heartless, but looked like gargantuan jellyfish, each had a giant umbrella-shaped mass that propelled it through space and a dozen tentacles dangling hundreds of yards down.

There were other giant Emblem Heartless that had animalistic features; there were some that resembled eels that had multiple heads. There were squid-like Heartless that had dozens of tentacles. There were multi-finned sharks and crocodiles with bat-like wings.

"Whoever created these things has a really sick imagination," said Aiden.

"Is this normal for us Keyblade Wielders?" Tess asked Riku, "seeing different Heartless wherever we go?"

"Heartless adapt themselves to whatever realm they invade," said Riku, "so yes, variety among The Heartless normal."

"Captain!" said Yuki, "they're beginning to attack the planets!"

"What do we do?" Aiden asked, "we can't defend four planets at once."

"Where are The Heartless coming from?" Captain Okita asked.

"I'm tracing their path through space," said Yuki, "they seem to be coming from a single point several million kilometers above this system's plane of elliptic."

"It's a planet that orbits at a different angle," said Sidney as she checked the sensors aboard The Intrepid Heart, "a gas giant. I can't determine it's chemical makeup, there's an interference field around the planet. All I can tell so far is that it has a mass slightly less than that of Jupiter, has no rings or moons and its orbit is…peculiar.

"Wait! Correction, it is not a planet at all! It's some kind of machine, a massive mechanical construct disguised as a planet! It uses a holographic disguise that also serves as a sensor jamming field. I'm still having trouble breaking through the jamming field, but it's certain that this faux planet is the source of this universe's Heartless."

"A planet-sized machine that's the base for The Heartless," said Sora, "it's like things can't get any worse."

"It's worse," said a horrified Yuki as she read the sensor data, "the creatures have reached the sixth and seventh planets. They're…they're killing everything that's alive on that planet. Everything that's in their way, animals and planets, they're all being destroyed."

Just then the tactical display of the star system changed. Where the sixth and seventh planets were, there was only darkness.

"They must have found the Keyholes for those worlds," said a appalled Riku, "two more worlds have fallen to the darkness."

"We can't let this go any further!" said Sora, "Captain! We have to do something!"

"I agree whole heartedly," said Captain Okita, "but what?"

"They're heading for the fourth and fifth planets now!" said Yuki.

"Are they heading towards as well?" Captain Okita asked.

"Captain!" Kodai interjected, "permission to fire the Wave Motion Gun!"

"We've got our own super weapon as well," said Riku, "just give enough time to charge it and we'll blow those dark bastards out of the stars!"

"What super weapon?" Aiden asked.

"We can turn the full power of our ship into one massive blast," said Kairi, "it's in the manual."

"Oh yeah," said Aiden.

"Have the creatures made any threatening moves towards us yet?" Captain Okita asked.

"Not yet," said Yuki, "they're ignoring both _The Yamato _and _The Intrepid Heart_. They're completely focused on the two planets."

"Then let's hit them now!" said Tess, all thoughts of running away forgotten by the sights of two worlds falling to the darkness and two more in danger, "now while we have the element of surprise!"

"Wait a second!" said Sidney, "there's something happening on both planets. Some sort of magical force being generated."

The view screen showed the two planets being surrounded by the masses of Heartless. But then several bright lights flashed into existence on both planets. The lights then connected, forming webs of light across the planets.

"It's some sort of energy extending 100 kilometers above the surfaces of both planets," said Yuki.

"It's magic alright," said Sora.

"But what kind of magic?" Kairi asked, "good or evil?"

Just then the first of the attacking Heartless began their attack on the two planets. They hit the webs of light and were destroyed by the magical force.

"They're shields, said an overjoyed Kairi, "magical shields that The Heartless can't cross."

"Now I definitely want to meet these people," said Sora.

"Well just to be safe," said Riku, "we should be ready to fight. If The Heartless can't get to those worlds, then they'll come after us."

"I agree," said Captain Okita. He then spoke into the ship's intercom, "All hands, prepare for battle."

"We'd better get back to our ship," said Sora.

* * *

><p>"THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH PLANETS HAVE BEEN PURGED," said the third Dalek.<p>

"THE FOURTH AND FIFTH PLANETS WILL BE CLEANSED NEXT," said the second Dalek.

"WAIT!" said the fourth Dalek, "THE PLANETS HAVE ERECTED ENERGY BARRIERS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN. NO HEARTLESS HAVE PENETRATED. THE PLANETS REMAIN UNHARMED!"

"INCREASE THE NUMBER OF ATTACKING HEARTLESS!" shouted the first Dalek, "THE WORLDS MUST BE INVADED! ALL LIFEFORMS MUST BE EXTERMINATED! DESTROY THOSE BARRIERS! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

* * *

><p>"The number of attacking Heartless just went up!" said Sidney as our heroes hurried back to <em>The Intrepid Heart<em>, "They're throwing themselves against the planetary shields!"

"Those shields can't last forever," said Riku as our heroes reached their ship and hurried onto the bridge and assumed their stations.

"Open a channel to the _Yamato _bridge," said Sora s Riku detached the two ships and piloted The Intrepid Heart away from the larger ship, "Captain Okita, we're ready for action over here!"

Kairi, Riku, Aiden, Donald, Goofy and Tess nodded in agreement.

"We're all ready here as well," said Captain Okita through the comlink, "our Black Tiger squadron is taking off as we speak."

"Captain," said Kodai, "I suggest we start by getting the enemy's attention first."

"You want to use The Wave Motion Gun?" Shima asked.

"Now that I think about it," said Kodai, "not really. We'll only get one shot, and it'll take too long for the engine to recharge. We'd get wiped out before we could move and fight again."

"What are they talking about?" Tess asked.

"Their most powerful weapon is directly liked to their power source," said Riku, "they channel all the energy of The Wave Motion Engine into one big blast, but it leaves them without main power for several minutes while the Wave Motion Engine recharges."

"They have to turn every nonessential system off in order to achieve the power needed for the Wave Motion Gun," said Sidney.

"That would definitely leave them at a tactical disadvantage," said Tess. "Well, if we're going to get their attention, let's try the direct approach. Heartless are attracted to Keyblades after all, so let's give them something to chase." She got up and summoned her Keyblade, Shining Justice.

"I think I know where you're going," said Sora as he stood up, "everyone, get your Keyblades out!" He then summoned the blue version of Ultima Weapon, while Riku summoned Way to the Dawn, Kairi summoned Destiny's Embrace and Aiden summoned Grand Arcadium.

"Stand by, Captain," said Riku, "the Heartless have just been given a rabbit to chase."

But the masses of Heartless continued to throw themselves onto the shielded planets.

"Those shields won't last much longer," said Sidney, "I estimate that they will collapse in five minutes."

"How can all those Heartless just ignore five Keyblades?" Sora asked.

"Maybe we need to get closer," said Riku as he hit the button that caused the ship to move forward. _The Intrepid Heart _moved several hundred kilometers ahead towards the swarms of Heartless.

"Don't leave us behind!" said Shima. _The Yamato _soon followed.

"They're still ignoring us," said Aiden, "either these Heartless are really dumb…"

"Or something really powerful is controlling them," said Riku, "maybe they need something bigger to draw their attention."

"If five Keyblades aren't enough," said Roxas as he appeared next to Sora, "then how about seven?" He then summoned Oathkeeper and Oblivion.

"Roxas!" as a smiling Sora.

"Don't forget me," said Naminé as she appeared next to Kairi.

"You're more than welcome," said a smiling Kairi.

Just then the view screen showed a large part of the masses of Heartless attacking the fifth planet break off from the main swarm and charged towards _The Intrepid Heart_.

"I think we've got their attention alright," said Aiden.

* * *

><p>"THE TWO INTRUDER SHIPS HAVE MOVED TOWARDS THE SWARM OF HEARTLESS," said the third Dalek. "THEY MAY SEEK TO ATTACK."<p>

"IGNORE THEM FOR NOW," said the first Dalek, "THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED IN DUE TIME."

"AN UNIDENTIFIED ENERGY PATTERN IS BEING TRANSMITTED FROM THE LESSER INTRUDER SHIP," said the second Dalek, "ATTEMPTING TO ANALYZE PATTERN."

"ALERT!" said the fourth Dalek, "A LARGE PERSENTAGE OF THE SWARM ATTACKING THE FIFTH PLANET HAS COMMENCED ATTACK ON THE LESSER INTRUDER SHIP!"

"WHAT!" exclaimed the first Dalek, "NO ORDER FOR SUCH AN ATTACK WAS NEVER GIVEN!"

"THE ENERGY PATTERS IS DRAWING THE HEARTLESS TOWARDS IT," said the second Dalek.

"ORDER THEM BACK TO THE PLANET!" said the first Dalek "THAT WORLD MUST BE CLEANSED!"

"THOSE HEARTLESS ARE NO LONGER ANSWERING OUR ORDERS!" said the second Dalek..

"THE INTRUDERS HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES TO BE DISRUPTIVE OF THE OPERATION," said the fourth Dalek, "THEY SHALL BE EXTERMINATED! ORFER FULL ATTACK! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

* * *

><p>"A lot more of The Heartless are coming towards us!" said Aiden, "we're in for it now!"<p>

"Open fire!" shouted both Sora and Captain Okita. _The Intrepid Heart _unleashed it's magic-enhanced lasers, missiles and torpedoes, while _The Yamato _used it's pulse lasers and shock cannons, as well as the lasers and missiles from the Black Tiger fighters. Hundreds of Heartless fell, but thousands more kept coming. Eventually all the masses of Heartless heading for the fifth planet changed course and headed for both ships.

"We've definitely saved the fifth planet," said Riku as he dodged one of the gargantuan Heartless, then lined the ship up with another for a torpedo run that destroyed the oversized creature.

"But what about the fourth planet?" Kairi asked as she and the others held on while Riku pulled off a hard right turn to avoid a swarm of Invisibles.

"As far as I can tell," said Sidney, "they're still enduring the other mass of Heartless.

"As far as you can tell?" Kairi.

"Well I am using most of my attention in keeping us alive," said Sidney in a matter of fact tone, "it takes a lot of computing power to run a ship in battle."

"How's _The Yamato _doing?" Tess asked.

"They're falling back," said Aiden, "several Heartless have crashed into them. It looks like they tried to dig their way in, but _The Yamato's _armor is holding."

"How much longer can we keep this up?" Kairi asked as the ship dodged a lunging attack from one of the giant Heartless, then spun out of the way of a swarm of smaller Heartless.

"As long as we can," said Sora, "we have to give the people down on the fifth planet as much time as we can to get their defenses up again!"

"Wait!" said Sidney, "something's happening on the fifth planet! I'm pulling it up on tactical!"

A small tactical display appeared on the forward view screen. It showed several beams of magic shooting up towards the masses of Heartless attacking _The Intrepid Heart _and _The Yamato_. Hundreds of Heartless in all shapes and forms were destroyed by each magical blast.

"They're fighting back!" said an ecstatic Kairi, "those people, they're helping us!"

"We're reading the energy blasts as well," said Yuki, "and…standby! I think…yes, they're sending up fighters as well!"

The view screen showed hundreds of green and white fighters rise up from the fifth planet and attack the Heartless masses. By now the swarms of Heartless were thinning out as our heroes and allies fought on.

"We're getting a communications request," said Yuki, "it's from the fighters from the planet!"

"We're also getting the signal," said Kairi.

"Patch the signal through me," said Sidney, "I'll translate it for both us and _The Yamato_."

"On audio now," said Kairi.

The voice of a man could be heard over the communication line, "Whoever you people are, you have the undying gratitude of all the people of Micandor V. I personally can't speak for Micandor IV, but they'd thank you if they can."

"Who are you?" Sora asked.

"I'd like to know that myself," said Captain Okita, "pilot, please identify yourself."

"Group Captain Quartrane," said the voice on the com line, "my men and I will help clear the vacuum of these…these things."

"They're called Heartless," said Sora.

"It's a long story," said Riku, "we'll talk later."

"That we will," said Group Captain Quartrane, "right now there's still plenty of dirty work to be done, for all of us."

"That'll give me some time to do some snooping," said Sidney a she smiled mischievously, "and see just who or what is controlling these Heartless."

* * *

><p>"RESISTANCE FROM THE FIFTH PLANET IS INTENSIFYING," said the third Dalek, "HEARTLESS FORCES FOR THAT WORLD ARE DECREASING. RECOMMEND THAT WE DISPATCH HEARTLESS FROM THE FOURTH PLANET TO ASSIST."<p>

"BATTLE COMPUTER CONFRIMS," said the second Dalek. "TRANSFER HEARTLESS FROM FOURTH PLANET ATTACK TO INTRUDER SHIP ATTACK!"

"WAIT," said the fourth Dalek, "RECOMMEND THAT WE USE THE OBLITERATOR MISSILES ON THE TWO PLANETS AND FOCUS ALL HEARTLESS ON THE INTRUDERS!"

"THIS IS HIGHLY IRREGULAR," said the third Dalek, "THE OBLITERATORS ARE ONLY TO BE USED WHEN ALL OTHER BATTLE PLANS FAIL."

"WE HAVE A LIMITED AMOUNT OF MISSILES," said the second Dalek, "WE STILL HAVE RESERVES OF HEARTLESS."

"IRELEVENT!" said the fourth Dalek, "THESE INTRUDERS POSE A THREAT TO OUR SURVIVAL. THEY MUST BE EXTERMINATED, BUT THE TWO PLANETS MUST BE EXTERMINATED FIRST. THEN WE WILL FOCUS ON THE INTRUDERS. RECOMMEND THAT WE USE THE OBLITERATOR MISSILES ON THE TWO PLANETS."

"RECALCULATING," said the second Dalek, "BATTLE COMPUTER CONFIRMS. DESTROY THE TWO PLANETS, THEN FOCUS ON THE INTURDERS."

"SO BE IT," said the first Dalek, "USE OF THE OBLITERATOR MISSILES APPROVED! RECALL THE HEARTLESS! DEPLOY THE PLATFORM! LAUNCH OBLITERATOR MISSILES! DESTROY THE PLANETS! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

Just then a klaxon sounded.

"ALERT! ALERT!" shouted the third Dalek, "SECURITY SENSORS DETECTING FORIEN ARTIFICAL INTELEGENCE PROGRAM PROBING! THE SMALLER INTRUDER SHIP IS ATTEMPTING TO SCAN US!"

"ACTIVATE DEFENCES!" shouted the first Dalek, "REPELL FORIEN PROGRAM AT ONCE!"

* * *

><p>Just then Sidney gasped in pain and collapsed to the floor, her holographic image flickering and distorting, like her programming was corrupted.<p>

"Sidney!" shouted Sora and the others.

"What's happening?" Aiden asked as he knelt down beside her, "are you alright?"

"I'm okay," said Sidney as she stood up, her image still distorted and now unfocused, "The enemy, they know I was there."

"What are you talking about?" Riku asked.

"I was trying to learn more about that giant machine," said Sidney as her holographic body cleared up, "the one disguised as a gas giant. Without a doubt there's a dark intelligence behind it, one capable of harnessing the power of millions of Heartless."

"Millions!" exclaimed everyone.

"Did you just say millions of those things?" an exasperated Shima asked.

"Millions," Sidney confirmed, "and they have other weapons as well. I managed to get into part of their computer system. Those nuclear weapons that destroyed that planet? They're called Obliterators. They've been used on over a dozen worlds in this universe alone, since the ones controlling The Heartless got here."

"Who are they?" Kairi asked, "what kind of sick monsters are they?"

"I didn't get that far into the computer to learn their identities," said Sidney, "but from their files on how they've nuked so many worlds, and destroyed others with The Heartless, they're as evil as they come, and then some."

"Did you hear that, Group Captain Quartrane?" Captain Okita asked.

"Every word," sad Group Captain Quartrane, "I'm transmitting to the central command of Micandor V that they begin evacuating the planet. They'll listen to me, we've seen signs of destroyed worlds in our long range exploration probes."

"What about the other planet?" Sora asked, "Micandor IV?"

"We haven't been able to contact them since the attack began," said Group Captain Quartrane, "our magical shield interferers with planet to planet communications. But we should be able to reestablish communications soon, I hope."

Just then a loud alarm sounded on _The Intrepid Heart_, "Something's coming!" shouted Sidney, "something big!"

"Captain!" shouted Yuki, "long-range radar is detecting two large ships emerging from the faux planet!"

The view screen of _The Intrepid Heart _showed two large, bronze and gold-colored ships that resembled counter-rotating UFO's. One ship was on a course for Micandor IV, the other for Micandor V.

"What are those ships doing?" Sora asked, "are they…"

"They're weapon platforms," said Sidney, "I learned that much from their computer. That's what they used to launch those nuclear missiles, Obliterators."

**The end of chapter 6**

Next chapter shows our heroes onboard both The Intrepid Heart and The Yamato struggle to repel the insidious efforts of The Daleks as the dark creatures try to murder Sora and the others. At the same time, the Hakonian and Gamilus armada catch up with our heroes, only to find that they've bitten off more than they can chew. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!


	7. Chapter 7: Downfall of The Dark Armada

Last time found _The Intrepid Heart _and _The Yamato _in a star system, Micandor, that was on the verge of being attacked by the local Heartless. Yet as it turned out, the local Heartless were under control, but our heroes and allies had no idea that the controllers turned out to be The Daleks. The hateful monsters launched their attack on the star system, destroying all life on two of the planets that supported life, while the other two planets, which have intelligent life, raised a defensive magical shield around their worlds.

_The Yamato _and _The Intrepid Heart _then engaged the swarms of Heartless, and they were joined by the defenders of Micandor V. But then The Daleks resolved themselves to unleash their weapons of mass destruction on our heroes. 'Nuff said, on with the show!"

**Chapter 7: Downfall of The Dark Armada**

"We have to get to those weapon platforms!" said Sora, "if they're carrying those cobalt-infused missiles, then they'll burn both planets!"

"But we're still surrounded by Heartless," said Kairi.

"Captain Okita," said Riku, "can any of your Black Tiger fighters get to those ships?"

"I'm sorry," said Captain Okita, "but our fighters are preoccupied with keeping The Heartless away from _The Yamato_."

"And I have to keep the ship moving in order to avoid The Heartless that get through the fighters," said Shima.

"If only we had a few minutes to hold still and charge The Wave Motion Gun," said Kodai, "just a few."

"Can we give you those few minutes?" Group Captain Quartrane asked.

"If you can keep all those Heartless occupied," said Shima, "then yes."

"Just hang tight for a minute," said Group Captain Quartrane. There was about thirty seconds of silence from the alien fighter leader, "I just spoke with my superiors, and they're going to help as much as they can."

"What are they going to do?" Yuki asked.

"Just watch," said Group Captain Quartrane.

Just then the computer monitor for the sensors aboard _The Intrepid Heart _went crazy as they picked up something powerful.

"There's a tremendous magical energy surge building up on the planet!" said Sidney. "I think they're going to attack!"

"How are they going to attack?" Tess asked.

The view screen then showed five beams of bright light shoot up from the planet. The beams then split into several smaller beams that lanced through the masses of Heartless, destroying them by the hundreds. Several more of these multiplying beam of magic soon cleared the immediate area of Heartless.

"Is that enough breathing room for you?" Group Captain Quartrane asked.

"Plenty," said Captain Okita, "you have my gratitude."

"You can pay me back by destroying that oversized death-ship coming towards us," said Quartrane.

"Kodai!" said Captain Okita, "prepare to fire the Wave Motion Gun!"

"Yes, Captain!" said Kodai. Everyone on the bridge of _The Yamato _donned flash goggles while a targeting screen rose out of Kodai's consol. In the engine room, a connector cylinder, almost like a giant firing pin, linked The Wave Motion Engine to the firing tube of The Wave Motion Gun.

"Shima, five degrees to port," said Kodai as he used the targeting screen to aim at the Obliterator platform.

"Five degrees to port, acknowledged!" said Shima as he turned the ship a bit to the right.

"Four degrees up," said Kodai.

"Four degrees up, acknowledged!" said Shima as he maneuvered the ship's angle up.

"We're locked on!" said Kodai as a trigger joystick rose up from the consol and he gripped it, "charging!"

"Shut down all nonessential systems!" said Captain Okita. All across the ship various systems powered down.

A loud humming filled the bridge as The Wave Motion Engine charged up beyond normal parameters.

"Power output at 120%," said Chief Tokugawa, "140%…160%…"

"Come on, do it," said Riku, "That thing is getting into position!"

The weapon platform had assumed orbit around Micandor V and had opened a large hatch. A missile launcher extended out from the ship and was preparing to launch its deadly payload.

"180%!" said Chief Tokugawa, "200%!"

"Firing the Wave Motion Gun!" said Kodai, "now!" he pulled the trigger.

The connector cylinder/firing pin slammed into the wide firing tube and shot all the power built up in The Wave Motion Gun out of the ship towards the weapons platform. The incredible beam of energy hit the platform head-on and atomized it in a blinding explosion. When the blast dissipated, only microscopic fragments of the weapons platform were left.

"They did it!" shouted an ecstatic Sora.

"That was so awesome!" said a grinning Kairi.

"Incredible," said Tess, "simply incredible."

"Incredible my eye!" said Aiden, "that was the most awesome thing I've ever seen."

"Yeah," said Riku, "but there's still the other weapons platform heading for Micandor IV."

"Oh, yeah," said Aiden in a deflated tone, "I forgot about that one."

* * *

><p>"THE OBLITERATOR PLATFORM DESIGNATED FOR THE FIFTH PLANET HAS BEEN DESTROYED!" shouted the fourth Dalek.<p>

"WHAT!" exclaimed the first Dalek, "INCONCEVIABLE!"

"THE OBLITERATOR PLATFORMS ARE CONSTRUCTED OF PURE DALEKANIUM!" said the third Dalek, "HOW CAN IT BE DESTROYED? EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"

"THE LARGER INTRUDER SHIP HAS USED A MASSIVE TACHYON ENERGY CANNON," said the second Dalek, "SENSORS DETECT THE ENERGY CANNON HAS EXHAUSTED THEIR POWER RESERVES."

"THE INTRUDER SHIPS POSESS THE GREATER THREAT TO OUR SURVIVAL!" shouted the first Dalek, "IGNORE THE PLANETS! THE SHIPS MUST BE EXTERMINATED AT ONCE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

* * *

><p>"What are we going to do about that other platform?" Kairi asked.<p>

"I think it just answered the question for us," said Aiden, "it's coming right for us and _The Yamato_!"

True enough, the second weapons platform had abandoned its course towards Micandor IV and was heading at top speed for the two ships.

"Captain Okita," said Sora, "how soon can you move?"

"At least another ten minutes," said Captain Okita, "The Wave Motion Engine needs to recharge before we can maneuver and fight again."

"That thing is gonna be all over us in six minutes," said Aiden as he read the tactical data.

"Not unless we destroy it first," said Riku, "Sora, Kairi, you still got those keys Cid gave us?"

"The ones that can turn all of the ships' power into one massive weapons blast?" Sora asked, "yeah, I still got mine," he pulled out said key.

"And I've got mine," said Kairi as she pulled out hers.

"And here's mine," said Riku as he pulled out his key.

"What exactly are you going to do?" Kodai asked.

"We have our own super weapon," said Tess, "and as soon as that thing gets close enough, we'll use it to blow that thing out of the stars."

"Riku, get to the weapons control room," said Sora, "I'll take over the helm and use my key from here. Kairi, use your key in the engine room."

"Right!" said both Riku and Kairi. They both ran for the elevator. Inside a minute both of them were in position over their respective locks.

"Insert the keys," said Sora. He, Riku and Kairi opened the glass boxes over the locks and put the keys in, "turn in 3...2...1...turn!" they all turned the keys and a red light lit on the boxes.

"All power transferring to weapons systems!" said Sidney, "life-support and gravity transferred to emergency power. All weapons at 200%!"

"Lock onto that platform and fire as soon as it gets in range," said Sora.

"Locking on!" said Goofy. A large joystick with a red firing button appeared on his consol.

The weapon platform stopped within 100 kilometers of both _The Yamato _and _The Intrepid Heart_. Again, a single hatch opened, revealing a missile launcher preparing to fire.

"My scans show that it is indeed a cobalt-infused missile," said Sidney, "one alone is more than enough to reduce both ships to atoms."

"We won't give it a chance to do that!" said Sora as Kairi and Riku ran onto the bridge, "Goofy! Fire!"

"Firing now!" shouted Goofy as he pressed the red button. All the weapons on the ship then fired a combined Fire/Thunder/Blizzard blast that shot towards the weapons platform with almost as much power as The Wave Motion Gun.

The beam hit the platform head on and blasted it into countless fragments.

"We did it!" shouted Goofy, while everyone else shouted with triumph.

Just then all the lights on the bridge went out and emergency lamps were lit.

"Now what?" Aiden asked.

"The power core has been drained," said Sidney as she sat on the floor, a look of exhaustion on her holographic face, "it'll take fifteen minutes to recharge."

"Oh yeah," said Sora in a deflated tone, "I forgot about that part."

* * *

><p>"THE LESSER INTRUDER SHIP HAS DESTROYED THE SECOND OBLITERATOR PLATFORM!" said the second Dalek.<p>

"IMPOSSIBLE!" raged the first Dalek.

"THE LESSER INTRUDER SHIP USED A DIFFERENT FORM OF ENERGY THAN THE LARGER INTRUDER SHIP," said the third Dalek, "DIFFERENT, BUT STILL EFFECTIVE."

"SENSORS ALSO DETECT THAT THE LESSER INTRUDER HAS EXHAUSTED ITS POWER AS WELL," said the second Dalek.

"REGUARDLESS," said the fourth Dalek, "BOTH SHIPS HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES TO BE FAR TOO GREAT A THREAT TO OUR SURVIVAL TO CONTINUE. WE SHOULD WITHDRAW."

"BATTLE COMPUTER CONFIRMS," said the third Dalek, "WE SHOULD RETREAT."

"DALEKS DO NOT RETREAT!" shouted the first Dalek, "DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!"

"DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!" shouted the other three Daleks.

Just then a fifth Dalek entered the bridge, "THE INTRUDERS SHOULD BE STUDIED," it said, "ANALYSIS OF THE SHIPS SAY THAT THEY DID NOT ORIGINATE IN THIS UNIVERSE. WE SHOULD CAPTURE THEM NOW, WHILE THEY ARE VUNREBLE, AND LEARN THEIR SECRETS."

"RECALCULATING," said the third Dalek, "BATTLE COMPUTER CONCURS. THE INTURDERS SHOULD BE CAPUTRED."

"BATTLE COMPUTER ALSO SUGGESTS THAT MORE HEARTLESS BE SUMMONED," said the fourth Dalek.

"THEN SO BE IT," said the first Dalek, "WE WILL LEARN THE SECRETS OF THE INTRUDERS. IF THEY PROVE TO BE BENEFICIAL TO OUR SURVIVAL, THEN THE INTRUDERS WILL LIVE ONLY AS LONG AS THEY ARE HELPFUL. AND IF THEY ARE NOT BENEFICIAL, THEN THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED.

"AT THE SAME TIME, WE WILL SUMMON MORE HEARTLESS. THIS UNIVERSE WILL BE CLEANSED, AND A NEW ERA OF DALEK SUPREMACY SHALL BEGIN!"

* * *

><p>"Radar systems restored," said Yuki, "scanning for further hostile entities."<p>

"My sensors are also restored," said Sidney as her holographic expression relaxed, "as are my projectors."

"You've saved our worlds," said Group Captain Quartrane, "the people of Micandor IV and V owe you all a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid."

"Hold that thought," said Aiden as he looked at the scanner display, "is it me, or is that faux planet moving towards us?"

"It is," said Yuki, "and…wait…the disruption field around the machine is dissipating. We can see what it looks like now!"

The view screens showed the faux planet changing into a giant space ship made of the same bronze metal as the weapons platforms, and it was coming straight towards _The Yamato_ and _The Intrepid Heart _at a velocity much greater than an object that size should be able to do so.

"What do we do?" Tess asked, "we can't run and we can't fight back."

"I guess the only thing any of us can do is just wait," said Sora, "and hope for the best."

"And just let them kill us?" an outraged Kodai asked, "Not me! I intend to go down fighting! Captain!"

"I agree," said Captain Okita, "issue weapons to the crew! Standby to repel borders! They can blow us out of the stars, but if they wish to invade this ship first, I intend to make it costly to them."

"I've got a feeling that they're not going to kill us just yet," said Riku, "we started this battle to get their attention, and now that we have their attention, they're definitely interested in us."

"They'll want to study us," said Sanada, "maybe there's a chance that we can reason with these people."

"I don't know about that," said Tess as she shuddered, "I've got that horrible feeling that we're in grave danger, that these people, if they even are people, aren't the kind that can be reasoned with, and that we'll be lucky if any of us gets out of this alive."

* * *

><p>"A brilliant plan, using the enemy's engine trail to track them," said Trakinor Darkwind to Grekor, "The Keyblade Wielders are as good as dead."<p>

The Hakonian and Gamilus taskforces had received their respective reinforcements, as well as thousands of Heartless and hundreds of Nobodies, and were now pursuing our heroes' energy trail through hyperspace.

"That's what we said before we tried to destroy them," said a scowling Grekor, "and that's the same attitude the younglings, Reddik and the others, had before they faced them. I now doubt that any Hakonian can destroy those brats."

"Ah, but I am no mere Hakonian, old friend," said Trakinor as he smiled smugly, "you of all of our kind should know that."

"What's Grekor's problem?" Orkal asked Ikura in a hushed tone, "It's like he wants to kill that Darkwind guy more than he wants to kill the Keyblade Brats."

"You really are an idiot," said Ikura, "Trakinor Darkwind is among the top dark magic users in our whole species, and is one level higher than Grekor. I don't know all the details, but Trakinor betrayed Grekor at some point in the past and got the higher rank. Grekor swore he'd kill Trakinor and has been biding his time. I'm surprised that Trakinor has been taking this assignment with such a cool head. If I were partnered with the man who swore to kill me, I'd be sweating bullets."

"Maybe he doesn't sweat at all," said Orkal.

"And here I thought you couldn't be any dumber," said an annoyed Ikura.

"So," said Trakinor in a cheerful yet vicious tone, "how soon until we catch up with our quarry?"

"The trail is getting fresher," said a lesser Hakonian at the sensor terminal, "estimated time to encounter…three minutes."

"In which case we'd better get ready," said Grekor in a more serious tone, "inform all our ships to prepare for battle the instant we return to normal space."

"Receiving transmission from Commander Heinz," said the Hakonian at the communications terminal.

"On screen," said Ikura.

The forward view screen showed an irate Commander Heinz on the bridge of the lead Gamilus ship, "This had better work, Hakonians. My men and I are in enough trouble with Lord Desler as it is."

"And we're in hot water with Maleficent," said Ikura, "both our peoples' heads are on the block. Our lives depend on the outcome of this mission."

"We've got more to lose," said Orkal, "if we go back without killing those Keyblade brats, we're going to be tortured to death."

"That's assuming you survive defeat," said Commander Heinz, "with those who fly the flag of Gamilus, even if we die in battle, win or lose, we still die honorably. But to return home defeated but alive is the greatest shame. Lord Desler will have us disgraced and have our families share that disgrace. So this time, it's all or nothing for my men and I. Either we return home victorious, or we will not return home at all."

"In that case," said Grekor, "I wish you victory. May your honor be preserved either way."

"And yours as well," said Commander Heinz, "your people and mine have the potential of becoming mighty allies. All of existence could be ours."

"It may be yet," said Ikura.

"Maybe," said Commander Heinz, "good hunting!" With that the transmission ended.

"What ruthless savages you've found, Grekor," said Trakinor.

"At least they know where they stand with the darkness," said Grekor, "they're worthy of being our friends. What about you? Made any friends lately?"

"Friendship is for the weak," said Trakinor, "all that matters in the long run is power, and finding new means to acquire it."

"If you two are going to fight," said Ikura, "do it later. We've got a battle to win soon, so if you've got problems, sit on them until after we win."

"I have no qualms with waiting," said Trakinor, "but can't speak for you, old friend."

"Just remember to watch your back during the battle," said an irate Grekor, "after all, accidents happen."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Trakinor.

The combined Hakonian/Gamilua/Heartless armada then exited hyperspace and approached the Micandor system.

"I have the enemy on scanners!" said one of the lesser Hakonians, "they…they're just sitting there in orbit around the fifth planet of the system."

"There are signs of heavy fighting around the fifth and fourth planets," said another lesser Hakonians, "and the sixth and seventh planets have had their Keyholes opened."

"The local Heartless?" Ikura asked.

"Possibly," said the lesser Hakonian, "though there are no signs of Heartless on scanners, it is possible that both The Keybalde Wielders and _The Yamato _fought them."

"And wore themselves out," said the other lesser Hakonian, "scans reveal that both ships are low on energy and are recharging."

"Then let's destroy them now!" shouted Orkal, "now before they realize we're here!"

"Wait!" said one of the lesser Hakonians at the scanner stations, "there's another ship in the system…and it's a big one!"

"Show me!" said Grekor. An image of the large machine approaching The _Yamato_ and _The Intrepid Heart _was put on the forward view screen.

"What is that thing?" Orkal asked.

A side window showing Commander Heinz appeared on the forward view screen, "are your scanners showing the same thing as ours?" he asked, "are you seeing that giant ship? What is it?"

"I don't know," said Ikura.

The giant machine stopped several kilometers from both ships and then locked onto them with tractor beams. "It looks like someone else has beaten us to the punch," said Trakinor.

* * *

><p>"They've got us in a tractor beam!" said Sidney.<p>

"Can we break free?" Sora asked.

"With what power?" Aiden asked.

"We still can't maneuver either," said Shima.

"Even if we could," said Sanada, "we wouldn't have the power; it'll take a Warp to break out of the tractor beams, and even then it that may not be enough."

"What now?" Kairi asked.

"If they really wanted us dead," said Tess, "they could have killed us ten times over by now. No, they want us alive for some reason, an evil reason, but a reason nonetheless."

"Well, things can't get any worse," said Kodai.

"It just did," said Aiden as he saw the sensor data, "there's dozens of Hakonian and Gamilus ships coming towards us, and they've got tones of Heartless!"

"Confirmed!" said Yuki, "they're coming right for us!"

"As if the frying pan was thrown right into the oven," said Captain Okita.

* * *

><p>"SCANNERS REPORT ADDITIONAL INTRUDERS IN THE SYSTEM!" said the second Dalek, "THE INTRUDERS ARE COMPOSED OF TWO DIFFERENT STARSHIP DESIGNES."<p>

"HALF THE INTRUDERS COINSIDE WITH THE LOCAL SPACE FAIRING RACE KNOWN AS GAMILUS," said the fourth Dalek.

"THE OTHER RACE IS UNFAMILIAR," said the second Dalek, "BUT THEIR SHIPS ARE SURROUNDED WITH HEARTLESS."

"EXCELENT," said the first DALEK, "WE WILL TAKE CONTROL OF THOSE HEARTLESS AND ADD THEM TO OUR OWN."

"WAIT!" said the fifth Dalek, "SCANNERS HAVE IDENTIFIED THE ENERGY SIGNATURE OF THE SECOND INTRUDER RACE AS HAKONIAN."

"HAKONIANS!" the first Dalek shouted, "THE RACE THAT DARED TO DEFY THE DALEKS! THEY MUST BE EXTERMINATED! IMEDIATELY!"

"WE DO NOT HAVE ANY OBLITERATOR MISSILES READY AT THIS TIME," said the third Dalek, "BATTLE COMPUTER SUGGESTS THAT WE TAKE THE INITIAL INTRUDERS AND WITHDRAW."

"THE HAKONIANS WERE THE ONLY RACE OTHER THAN THE TIME LORDS AND MOVELLANS WHO POSSESSED TECHNOLOGY CAPABLE OF DEFEATING US IN OPEN BATTLE," said the fifth DALEK, "THEY DEFIED OTHER RACES AND SURVIVED. ONLY **_THE ONCOMMING STORM_**, THE DOCTOR,WAS ABLE TO DEFEAT THEM. WE SHOULD RETREET NOW."

"NO!" shouted the first Dalek, "DALEKS DO NOT RETREET! WE WILL AVENGE OUR FALLEN COMRADES HERE AND NOW!"

"HOW?" the fourth Dalek asked.

"WE TURN THEIR HEARTLESS AGAINST THEM," said the fifth Dalek, "WE TAKE CONTROL OF THEIR HEARTLESS AND MAKE THEM DESTROY THE INTRUDERS, BOTH HAKONIAN AND GAMILUS."

"GAMILUS HAS BEEN DECLAIRED A LOW PRIORITY THREAT TO OUR SURVIVAL," said the second Dalek.

"THEY SEALED THEIR FATES WHEN THEY SIDED WITH OUR ENEMIES," said the first Dalek, "TAKE CONTROL OF THEIR HEARTLESS! DESTROY THEM ALL! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

* * *

><p>"Something's happening with that machine," said Ikura as she looked at the sensor data, "it looks like it's opening up.<p>

The view screen showed a large hatch opening, revealing a large UFO-type ship, much like the ones used as weapons platforms, but slightly smaller and faster. The ship hurtled out towards the combined armadas.

"What kind of ship is that?" Commander Heinz asked.

"Wait," said Grekor, "run an atomic composition scan on that ship. What is it made of?"

"Running scan now," said the lesser Hakonian at the sensor station, "it's made of…by the everlasting darkness! It's made of Dalekanium!"

"Dalekanium!" exclaimed Ikura, a horrified look on her face, "then that means…"

"That giant machine," said a visibly frightened Grekor, "it belongs to The Daleks!"

"Impossible!" snapped Trakinor, "The Daleks were all destroyed in The Last Great Time War by The Time Lords themselves."

"What are Daleks?" Commander Heinz asked.

"Believe me," said a trembling Orkal, "you don't wanna know."

* * *

><p>"That machine is made of the same alloy the weapon platforms were made of, Captain," said Sanada, "it's strong enough to withstand all but the strongest of energy blasts. I'm afraid that only a shot from The Wave Motion Gun or what <em>The Intrepid Heart <em>used could destroy that machine."

"Keep trying to figure out another option, Sanada," said Captain Okita, "we're not finished yet."

"At least they're distracted by the other guys," said Sora, "I thought I'd never be glad to see the Hakonians."

"And I thought I'd never be glad to see Gamilus," said Kodai.

"Hang on," said Sidney, "I'm picking up a carrier signal being broadcast by that smaller ship the bigger machine just spat out. It's being directed towards the enemy armada."

"Are they trying to communicate with the Hakonians and Gamilus?" Riku asked.

"No," said Sidney, "the signal…it's being focused on The Heartless. I think…yes! This carrier signal is how the local Heartless are being controlled!"

"Wait!" said Yuki, "there's a secondary signal being broadcast with the first one, as if it's a subliminal message. It's in a computer language."

"Attempting to translate," said Analyzer.

"I've already translated it, you rust bucket," said Sidney, "I'll put it on audio now."

Everyone aboard both _The Yamato _and _The Intrepid Heart _were both chilled and horrified by what they heard next…

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

* * *

><p>The Hakonians had also heard the second signal, "if that's not proof that The Daleks still exist," said Grekor to Trakinor, "then I don't know what is."<p>

"So they're Daleks," said an unconcerned Trakinor, "we know their weaknesses from the last time they tried to conquer us."

"Just what are Daleks?" Commander Heinz asked.

"Mutated abominations inside mechanical death machines," said Ikrua, "capable of feeling only hate towards all things not like them. They tried to destroy us, but we drove them from our empire. This was before the final collapse of our empire, before we were forced to become nomads."

"But how come there's Daleks here if they were all destroyed?" Orkal asked.

"We'll find out how they survived The Time War," said Trakinor, "assuming there's any of them left after we're done with them. Order all ships to target the approaching warship and destroy it."

"Don't argue with him," Ikura said to Grekor, "he's in Maleficent's favor right now, so don't give him a reason to make things worse for us."

"As long as he remembers just who's mission this is," said Ikura. He then spoke to the lesser Hakonians at the weapons control station, "all ships! Target and fire!"

"All Gamilus ships!" said Commander Heinz, "target and fire!"

The combined armada opened fire on the approaching Dalek ship, yet all their energy blasts and missiles bounced off of the shields of the Dalek ship.

"It would appear that they've improved their defenses since they last encountered us," said Trakinor.

"They must have adapted to our technology as well," said Commander Heinz, "I suggest that we redeploy the armada in defensive formation. If these Daleks are as ruthless as you say they are, then we should show caution."

"Master Grekor!" exclaimed one of the lesser Hakonians at the sensor stations, "that carrier signal being broadcasted by The Daleks, it's affecting our Heartless!"

"Effecting them how?" Grekor asked.

Just then the tactical display of the armada showed several hundred Heartless attacking one of the Hakonian ships, destroying it.

"What in the seven hells?" exclaimed Orkal.

"They've taken control of our Heartless!" shouted Ikura as another Hakonian ship was destroyed by The Heartless. Just then one of the Gamilus ships was attacked and destroyed as well.

"The Heartless are going after the engines of the ships," said one of the lesser Hakonians, "they're ignoring the crews of the ships and concentrating on destroying the ships themselves."

"You Hakonian bastards!" shouted an outraged Commander Heinz as another Gamilus ship was destroyed, "you've betrayed us!"

"Well of course you've been betrayed," said Trakinor in a nonchalant tone, "but not by the Hakonians."

"You," said Grekor in an accusing tone to Trakinor, "you did this! You lead us to The Daleks!"

"Not necessarily," said Trakinor, "you were right about this particular Hakonian being dead," his body them morphed into a demon with three eyes, pale yellow shin and elongated limbs that ended with claws, "I just happened to be borrowing his image in order to get inside New Hollow Bastion."

"You're one of those demons that's been nosing around the worlds," said Ikura.

"Exactly," said the demon, "and I'm glad to say that what my fellow demons and I are looking for isn't on New Hollow Bastion."

"What is it that you're looking for?" Grekor asked.

"That our dirty little secret," said the demon, "but while it's not on New Hollow Bastion, Maleficent may be the one to give it to us, assuming she's willing to negotiate a fair price. She can get what we need, so we will give her what she needs."

"The Uridium," said Ikura, "you're here to sabotage us so you demons can give the Uridium to Maleficent!"

"Precisely," said the demon, "I was going to simply disable the defenses of the armadas so The Keyblade Wielders could destroy you, but I must admit that running into The Daleks, improbable as it is, is far too great an opportunity to pass up."

"So you had nothing to do with bringing us to The Daleks?" Orkal asked.

"Nothing what so ever," said the demon, "they just happened to be here at the right time, and now it seems that they'll destroy The Keyblade Wielders, as well as you. Well…not all of The Keyblade Wielders. There's something in their possession that we need, something, or should I say someone, that I will have to take before The Daleks destroy them."

"What or who is it that the brats have that you want?" Ikura asked.

"I told you before," said the demon, "that's my dirty little secret." It grinned viciously, "and now I have to leave."

"You're not going anywhere!" snapped Orkal.

"As if you could stop me," said the demon. It then teleported out.

"Masters!" shouted one of the Hakonians, "nearly all of our ships have been destroyed by The Heartless, including the mining ships!"

"So many of our people, dead," said Ikura in a defeated tone, "and the Uridium, all gone."

Just then Commander Heinz spoke, "I just transmitted an emergency signal to Gamilus, warning Lord Desler of the situation. I'm sure that if I'm still alive when he sends the reply, he won't be happy with me," several consoles on the bridge of the Gamilus command ship exploded, "but know this, Hakonians, you are no longer welcome in this universe. If ever your people cross paths with Gamilus again, you will not be shown mercy." More and more explosions occurred on the command ship bridge and the signal cut out.

"The Gamilus command ship has been destroyed!" said one of the lesser Hakonians, "their entire armada has been wiped out!"

"How many of our ships are left!" Grekor asked.

"Just our ship, Master Grekor," said the lesser Hakonian, "our shields are failing and…"

Just then several explosions rocked the ship as the shields failed and The Heartless began damaging the engines.

"Abandon ship!" shouted Grekor, "all hands to escape pods!"

* * *

><p>"Good gods!" said Aiden as our heroes saw the destruction of the combined armada, "destroyed by their own creatures."<p>

"Whoever's on that giant machine must be pure evil," said Kairi.

"I told you we should have left while we had the chance!" said Tess.

"Getting upset won't get us our of here," said Kodai.

"Well I'm open for suggestions," said Tess.

"Somehow we've got to break free of those tractor beams," said Shima.

"Leave that to my men and I," said Group Captain Quartrane.

"No," said Captain Okita, "you've done enough for us. I fear that if you or any of your people try to help us, you'll be destroyed for sure."

"But that machine came here to destroy us all!" said Group Captain Quartrane, "and now it just destroyed those other guys."

"And right now it seems to have forgotten about Micandor IV and V," said Captain Okita.

"He's right," said Sora, "that thing is focused on us. Maybe we can do something that will make it leave you alone."

"After the way it nearly incinerated the two worlds?" Quartrane asked, "after it just wiped out that armada? I don't think anyone's safe."

"Wait," said Sidney, "my long range scanners are picking up several escape pods from the Hakonian ships."

"I hope they're alright," said Kairi, "they may be our enemies, but they still deserve a chance to live."

"What about Gamilus escape pods?" Yuki asked.

"Sorry," said Sidney, "all I'm getting from their ships is wreckage. Wait…oh no…The Heartless are going after the escape pods!"

"Just who the hell are these bastards in that machine!" Tess asked.

* * *

><p>"DESTRUCTION OF GAMILUS FORCES COMPLETE," said the second Dalek, "DESTRUCTION OF HAKONIAN FORCES NEARLY COMPLETE. ALL THAT REMAINS IS THE ANNIHILATION OF THEIR ESCAPE PODS."<p>

"RECOVER ONE OF THE ESCAPE PODS," said the first Dalek, "BRING THEM HERE. WE MUST DISCOVER WHERE THE REST OF THE HAKNONIANS ARE."

"TRASNMISSION SHIP ACTIVATING TRACTOR BEAM," said the third Dalek, "ESCAPE POD CAPTURED. WILL RETURN TO MOTHERSHIP IN TWENTY RHELLS."

"BRING IN THE TWO INTRUDER SHIPS," said the first Dalek, "THEY WILL BE STUDIED BEFORE THEY ARE EXTERMINATED."

"RETRACTING TRACTOR BEAMS," said the third Dalek, "THEY WILL REACH THE DOCKING HATCHES IN TWO RHELLS."

"WHAT OF THE TWO REMAINING WORLDS IN THIS SYSTEM?" the fourth Dalek asked.

"THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED IN DUE TIME," said the first Dalek, "THEY ARE OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE. WHEN A NEW SET OF OBLITERATOR MISSILES IS READY, THE TWO WORLDS WILL BE DESTROYED. BUT FOR NOW WE WILL FOCUS ON THE INTRUDERS."

"WE OBEY!" said the other four Daleks.

* * *

><p>Just then the ship shook and our heroes nearly fell out of their seats, "They're reeling us in!" shouted Aiden, "their tractor beams are pulling both our ship and The Yamato towards that machine!"<p>

"Kodai!" shouted Captain Okita, "Weapons status!"

"Still offline, Captain!" said Kodai.

"Captain!" said Chief Tokugawa, "that tractor beam is interfering with the Wave Motion Engine. We're not recharging at all!'

"Power levels in our engine are still down also!" said Sidney, "even if they let us go now, we still can't go anywhere!"

"Just say the word and we'll take care of that blasted machine!" exclaimed Group Captain Quartrane.

"Don't!" said Sora, "we'll be alright. Just focus on keeping your people safe."

At that time the tractor beams had brought _The Intrepid Heart _and _The Yamato _alongside the giant machine. Airlocks extended out from the machine and forced themselves onto both ships.

"They've established docking seals," said Sidney, "I'm reading a breathable atmosphere on the other side of the airlock."

"We're receiving a transmission from the machine," said Yuki.

Everyone on both ships then heard the same emotionless mechanical voice, "REPRESENTATIVES FROM BOTH INTRUDER SHIPS WILL PROCEED TO COMMAND CENTER AT ONCE. FAILURE TO OBEY WILL RESULT IN THE IMMEDIATE EXTERMINATION OF BOTH SHIPS AND THEIR CREWS. YOU HAVE FIVE RHELLS TO COMPLY."

"Sounds like they want to meet us," said Goofy.

"It's a trap!" said Donald, "I just know it!"

"It may be a trap," said Sanada, "but then, knowing that there is a trap is the first step in avoiding it. Captain, I suggest we take up our hosts gracious invitation, but we proceed with caution, and armed of course."

"Agreed," said Captain Okita, "Kodai! Yuki! Shima! Analyzer! We will go with several security officers and meet our 'hosts.'"

"Yes, Captain!" said Kodai, Shima and Yuki.

"We'd better go as well," said Sora, "Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, we'll meet our hosts as well."

"What about us?" Tess asked, "why can't we go with you?"

"Not to seem like a coward," said Aiden, "but I'm sure there's a good reason you picked me to stay."

"You're the only one who can identify the remaining Princesses of Heart," said Riku, "and Tess…well… I just don't want anything to happen to you."

"Why Riku," said a smiling Tess, "I didn't know you cared so much."

"I guess I do care," said a blushing Riku.

"Worry about that when we get back," said Kairi, "and we will get back."

"But while we're gone," said Sora, "Sidney, I need you to try to get inside the enemy's computer again. We've got to break free of that tractor beam and restore our engine and The Wave Motion Engine; both us and _The Yamato _are helpless until our power is restored."

"I'll do what I can," said Sidney, "but in case this doesn't work out for any of us, I'd like to say that working with you Keyblade guys, it's been a blast."

"It's been great working with you too," said Sora.

"Super awesome," said Kairi.

"Super-califragilistic-expialidocious," said Riku. At that everyone laughed.

"YOU NOW HAVE FOUR RHELLS TO EXIT YOUR SHIPS AND PROCEED TO THE COMMAND CENTER. FAILURE TO OBEY WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE EXTERMINATION!"

"We'd better not keep them waiting," said Riku, "they sound serious."

"They've been serious since we got here," said Kodai.

"We'll meet you on the other side, Sora," said Captain Okita, "whatever that side may hold. Good luck."

"The same for you, Captain," said Sora.

Just then Group Captain Quartrane's voice could be heard on the com line, "my men and I are going to hold back and wait. If it looks like you're going to try and get away, we'll rush in and help in any way we can, regardless of the cost. You've done so much for my people, and the people of Micandor IV."

"The only way you can repay us is by living," said Kairi.

"Well," said Group Captain Quartrane, "we can try, that's just about as best anyone can do. Either way, good luck."

"And to you," said Sora. With that the com link ended.

"Nice guy," said Tess, "if we get out of this intact, I'd like to meet him."

"I'd like that as well," said Riku, "we'll all get to meet them, all of us. I am coming back from this, Tess Thatcher. You and I have unfinished business."

"That we do, Riku," said Tess, "that we do."

"YOU NOW HAVE THREE RHELLS TO EXIT YOUR SHIPS AND PROCEED TO THE COMMAND CENTER. FAILURE TO OBEY WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE EXTERMINATION OF BOTH SHIPS!"

"We're coming already!" said an irate Kodai, "keep your pants on!"

"We shouldn't keep them waiting," said Sora, "let's go."

"Kick their asses if you get the chance!" said Aiden as Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy left the bridge and proceeded to the airlock.

"It'll be our pleasure," said Riku as they stood in front of the airlock. It opened, revealing the interior of the enemy machine. With their heads held high, Sora and the others walked into the machine, with the airlock closing up after them.

"I'll give them five minutes," said Tess to Aiden, "then we're going after them."

"You heard what Sora said," said Aiden, "he told us to stay with the ship."

"He told you to stay because you've got stuff in your head that's dangerous to the wrong people," said Tess, "and Riku, I think he likes me, and I kinda like him. But that's beside the point. Our friends are walking into a trap, and I'm not going to sit here and wait."

"Well what are you going to do about it?" Sidney asked, "I'm doing everything I can to get inside the enemy's computer without them knowing I'm there. It could take hours before I can free _The Intrepid Heart_ and _The Yamato_, let alone how much longer to restore power to both ships."

"You just worry about getting the ships operational again," said Tess, "I'll worry about saving our friends."

"And how are you going to do that?" Aiden asked.

At that Tess smiled mischievously, "my dear Aiden Mackenzie, have you ever wondered what it's like to be invisible?"

**The end of chapter 7.**

Next chapter find our heroes and allies finally coming face to face with The Daleks, while at the same time we lean what it is that the demons want. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!


	8. Chapter 8: Apotheosis of The Daleks

Last time found _The Yamato _and _The Intrepid Heart _facing the world-destroying weapons of The Daleks. Although our heroes and allies didn't know it was The Daleks they were facing, they still destroyed the weapon platforms, saving the two worlds of Micandor. But their efforts left _The Yamato _and _The Intrepid Heart _almost depleted of power. The Daleks took advantage of the situation and locked onto them with tractor beams.

At the same time the combined Hakonian/Gamilus/Heartless armada arrived, only to have The Daleks turn the masses of Heartless against The Hakonians and Gamilus ships, all but destroying the armada. The metal monstrosities then ordered Our heroes and allies to board the vile command ship of The Daleks. 'Nuff said, on with the show!

**Chapter 8: Apotheosis of The Daleks**

Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy proceeded down the dimly lit corridors of the enemy ship. "These guys need to change their interior decorator," said Kairi.

"I don't think they care about what other people think of them," said Riku, "I think we're in more trouble than ever."

"Why's that?" Goofy asked.

"I've got a rotten feeling that we know who we're dealing with," said Sora, "even though we've never met them before. You remember when we were chained up in Reddik's sand fortress back in Aiden's world?"

"I wish I could forget," said Kairi.

"Well he and Rakel told us about all those other bad guys The Hakonians faced," said Sora.

"Oh yeah," said Donald, "that was a lot of baddies he talked about."

"There were Zygons," said Goofy as he counted on his fingers, "and them Ice Warriors, And then there was them Santarians."

"That's Sontarians, ya big palooka," said Donald.

"There were also those robots with living brains," said Kairi, "Cybermen."

"And there were the worst of the worst," said Sora.

Just then they came to a point where another corridor intersected with the one our heroes were in, and there in the other corridor was Captain Okita, Kodai, Shima, Yuki, Analyzer and several security officers from _The Yamato_, all armed with laser blasters

"It seems we're all on the right track," said Captain Okita as they met in the middle of the intersecting hallways.

"It makes you wonder where we're being lead," said Yuki.

Just then the mechanical voice shouted from a hidden loudspeaker. "DO NOT PROCRASTINATE! PROCEED TO COMMAND CENTER OR BE EXTERMINATED!"

"We're coming already!" said Sora.

"What's with these guys?" Shima asked as they all continued down the corridor, eventually coming to a large elevator, "and why to they keep using that word, 'exterminate?'"

"That's what we were talking about," said Sora as they all got into the elevator. The doors closed and the elevator shot upwards, "we heard about these really evil beings called Daleks that were so full of hate that they recklessly killed everything that wasn't like them."

"And you think these Daleks are in charge here?" Kodai asked.

"I think we're about to find out," said Kairi.

The elevator stopped and the door opened, revealing a slightly more lit corridor.

"PROCEED," said the harsh electronic voice.

"There's no reason we should be like ungrateful guests," said Captain Okita as he proudly walked forward, but Sora and the others, they could tell he was making a tremendous effort to be able to stand up straight.

"Sir, you okay?" Sora asked.

"Old wounds tend to act up at the worst of times," said Captain Okita in a hushed tone, "but it's important that I don't show any weakness to my crew. A captain is supposed to be a pillar of strength on which a crew can depend on."

"I won't argue with that," said Sora, "a leader should always be strong when it counts. But you should see your doctor as soon as this is over."

"Dr. Sado already knows of my condition," said Captain Okita, "he didn't oppose my coming here, but I'm sure he's already writing several furious protests that will be filed when we get back to Earth.

"The good doctor can protest all he wants. My life isn't all that important when one considers the grander picture. I'd gladly give my life it would ensure the success of _The Yamato's _mission. Truth be told, I took this assignment with the knowledge that my condition could possibly kill me. But if I have to die for the survival of my world and its people, then so be it. My only regret in that situation would be that I won't get to see Earth from orbit one last time."

"You'll get to see your home again," said Sora in a promising manner, "we'll get out of this mess, stop The Daleks, if they're the ones responsible. Then we'll fix The Wave Motion Engine so that _The Yamato _can make up for lost time. You'll get to Iscandar, get the Cosmo Cleaner D, get back to Earth and fix it. You'll get to see Earth again, I promise."

"You have the look of a man who can keep such a promise," said Captain Okita, "and I believe you would. And of course, my crew has been known to get lucky every now and then. We wouldn't have survived this far without luck."

"It all comes down to luck," said Sora.

Our heroes and allies then reached a large set of doors, which opened, "ENTER!" said the harsh electronic voice.

Sora and the others stepped onto a large, dimly lit bridge with stations that had circular controls. A low double beeping could be heard in the background of the machinery.

"We're here," said Sora, "what do you want with…"

"DO NOT SPEAK!" snapped the electronic voice, "YOU WILL REMAIN SILENT UNTIL ORDERED OTHERWISE! DISOBEY AND YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"I just want to know who you are," said Sora, "are you The Daleks?"

"WE ARE INDEED THE DALEKS," said a different electronic voice. From the shadows of the control room emerged five mechanoids, each one resembled a human-sized salt and pepper shaker. They each had a black metal casing with a round, rotating top that had a long stalk that had the glowing blue eye and two smaller lights on top that flashed when speaking. The lower part of their bodies were much longer in the front and were covered in hemispherical bumps. They each had a plunger-like manipulator arm on their left and an energy weapon on the right.

The five creatures, Daleks, faced our heroes and allies in a line, the one that just spoke was in the middle.

"HOW IS IT THAT YOU KNOW OF US?" the Dalek on the middle left, the second Dalek.

"We had secondhand reports of your exploits," said Riku.

"THEN YOU WILL HAVE NO QUALM WHEN WE PROVE OUR PROWESS," said the Dalek on the far right, the fifth Dalek. It raised its blaster at one of the security officers from _The Yamato _and fired a green death beam.

The officer from _The Yamato _screamed in unadulterated agony as his whole body was covered by the death energy, his skeleton outlined by the energy. He collapsed to the floor, dead.

At that Yuki screamed in horror, while Kodai shouted in defiance.

"What the…" said a shocked Sora.

"That thing just…it just killed that man," said a horrified Kairi. They knew what they were facing, but were completely unprepaired for the sight of such reckless murder.

"That was completely uncalled for!" snapped Captain Okita as he started forward with his blaster raised, while Kodai also aimed his blaster at the Dakels

"SILENCE!" shouted the Dalek on the far left, the fourth Dalek, as it and the third Dalek aimed and fired their weapons at Captain Okita's and Kodai's blasters, disintegrating them.

"THAT WAS MERELY A DEMONSTRATION OF OUR CAPABILITIES," said the first Dalek.

"NOW YOU KNOW THAT WE CAN DESTROY YOU WHENEVER WE WANT," said the Dalek on the middle right, the third Dalek, "AND WE WILL DESTROY YOU, AFTER WE'VE EXTRACTED ALL INFORMATION WE DESIRE FROM YOUR PATHETIC HUMAN BRAINS."

"I am not human," said Analyzer, "I am a genius!"

"YOU ARE A PATHETIC ATTEMPT AT ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE," said the second Dalek, "HARDLY WORTHY OF HAVING YOUR MEMORY BANKS TRAWLED FOR USEFUL INFORMATION."

"AND THE ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE PROGRAM OF THE LESSER INTRUDER SHIP," said the fourth Dalek, "THAT ONE, WHILE SLIGHTLY MORE ADVANCED, IS BARELY WORTHY OF BEING DIGITALY DISECTED."

"Don't let Sidney hear you say that," said an irate Sora, "she's worth twelve of you."

"A SINGLE DALEK CAN EXTERMINATE AN ENTIRE PLANET!" snapped the fourth Dalek, "WE ARE THE ULTIMATE LIFE FORMS! THE APOTHEOSIS OF EXISTANCE! THE ULTIMATE EXAMPLES OF PERFECTION THE SUPREME POWER OF THE UNIVERSE!"

"If you're so perfect," said Riku, "then why do you have to kill everything that isn't like you? Why murder everything that isn't a Dalek?"

"All life is precious," said Kairi, "everything, from the lowest worm to the largest animals in the air, on land and in the sea deserves a chance to make something of themselves."

"THEY DESERVE TO DIE!" said the fourth Dalek.

"The deserve to choose for themselves!" snapped Kodai.

"SILENCE, HUMAN!" shouted the second Dalek.

"ALL OTHER LIFE FORMS ARE INFEARIOR TO DALEKS AND ARE THEREFORE THREATS TO OUR SURVIVAL," said the fifth Dalek, "ALL THREATS TO OUR SURVIVAL ARE TO BE EXTERMINATED."

"But why?" Shima asked, "why must you hate everything that isn't like you?"

"They can't help it," said Ikura as she, Grekor and Orkal and two lesser Hakonians were 'escorted' into the room by two more Daleks, "Daleks were created to feel only hate, and that hate is directed towards all things not like them."

"You're Hakonians," said Riku, "Like Reddik and the others we've met."

"We're a bit different than those younglings you Keyblade brats faced," said Grekor, "my companions here are a bit older than Reddik and his fellow pups. I myself am in my fourth centaury."

"I wouldn't have thought that," said Ikura, "you struck me as at least 150."

"I've been under a lot of stress," said Grekor, "it shows."

"How long do Hakonians live?" Kairi asked.

"There was a time when we looked forward to exactly 1,000 years of youth and perfect health before death came to claim us," said Grekor, "back when our empire was at its height and our medical sciences kept us at our prime. But those days are long gone, and we are now lucky to live to see 400.

"Forgive me for prattling. Since we're going to die as soon as out 'hosts' are done with us, we might as well be civil. I am Grekor Darkeye."

"Ikura Shadewalker."

"Orkal Bloodsport."

"Nice to meet you," said Sora, "did anyone else from your fleet make it?"

"We were the only ones that didn't get blasted out of the stars on general principle," said Orkal.

"What about those from the Gamilus ships?" Yuki asked.

"They all went down with their ships," said Ikura, "I'll admit, they were loyal to their duty, especially their taskforces' leader, Commander Heinz."

"If we get out of this," said Captain Okita, "I'll send a message to Gamilus about their people's heroic end, they deserved it."

"That's awfully decent of you," said Grekor in a suspicious tone, "considering it was the blue-skins who wrecked your world."

"Just because we're bitter enemies," said Kodai, "doesn't mean we can't show each other honor and respect."

"And when one throws away honor and respect, they are less than animals," said Ikura. She looked at Sora and the others, "you Keyblade Wielders may be the enemies of The Hakonians, but you've had our respect for some time now. Had we met face to face on the field of battle, I would have granted you all honorable deaths."

"That's awfully decent of you," said Riku, "considering that the other Hakonians we've met have done their best to try and kill us."

"Those seven pups you've fought were still immature in the eyes of our people," said Grekor, "a Hakonian under 60 is comparable to a human teenager."

"Sixty years as a kid?" Kodai asked, "not my idea of a good time."

"It's worse for us," said Orkal.

"ENOUGH USELESS BANDTERING!" snapped the third Dalek, "YOU WILL PROVIDE US THE INFORMATION WE SEEK OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"I've got you information right here," said one of the lesser Hakonians as it gave the Daleks the finger.

"Don't antagonize them," said Ikura, but her warning came too late. The second Dalek aimed and fired its death ray at the lesser Hakonian. He screamed in agony as the death energy flooded his body, illuminating his skeleton briefly. He then collapsed to the floor dead.

Before anyone could react, the third Dalek fired its death ray at the other lesser Hakonian, killing him.

"You monsters!" exclaimed Kairi, "they had surrendered! There was no reason to kill them!"

"THEY ARE NOT DALEKS," said the second Dalek, "THEREFORE, THEY ARE THREATS TO OUR SURVIVAL AND MUST BE EXTERMINATED."

"So that's it, then," said Shima, "survival by destroying everything that isn't like you. You disgust me!"

"DALEKS DO NOT CONCERN THEMSELVES WITH IDLE INSULTS," said the third Dalek.

"There's a lot that you need to learn," said Captain Okita.

"Just what kind of hell hole did you bastards crawl out of anyway?" Kodai asked.

"THAT INFORMATION IS NONE OF YOUR CONCERN," said the first Dalek.

"I'll tell you," said Ikura, "we're going to die anyway, so you brats might as well know. Eons ago in another universe there was a planet called Skaro. On that world there were two races locked in a war that lasted a thousand years. The two races, The Thals and Kaleds, they used advanced weaponry that completely rendered the surface of Skaro uninhabitable due to radioactive contamination.

"Even with their world ruined, the two races still dragged the war on, all because of hate. The Thals hated the Kaleds for their cruelty, and the Kaleds hated the Thals because the Thals weren't a 'pure' race in the eyes of the Kaleds. The two races built underground cities and the war went on and on and on. After a thousand years, they were reduced to using primitive weapons such as machine guns and poison gas.

"But even on a world devastated by radiation, life went on in a way. People on both sides began to suffer mutations brought on by the radiation. The Thals simply banished the mutants to the surface to survive in whatever way the could, while the Kaleds killed the mutants on their side.

"However, there were a few on both sides who saw the mutants as the future of both races, that eventually the radioactive contamination would mutate all Kaleds and Thals. There was one Kaled scientist who tried to ensure the survival of the Kaleds when they mutated, even going so far as purposely advancing the mutations in controlled experiments so that he would know exactly what the mutations would turn the Kaleds into, which happened to be helpless abominations.

"That scientist was called Davros, and he was quite possibly the most brilliant scientific mind that ever lived, or maybe the most demented, maybe both, for only a mad scientist would willingly do what he did.

"Davros created a mechanical travel suit for the mutants that the Kaleds would become. This travel suit would protect its occupant from all manner of harm and give it a weapon that could kill any living thing. He called his creations Daleks, which happens to be an anagram for Kaleds.

"Davros also gave several more 'gifts' to his Daleks. Aside from the nearly invincible travel suit, he reprogrammed the minds of the mutated abominations. Each Dalek would be a genius in the sciences, but all emotion would be removed, making them beings of logic.

"That is, all but one emotion was removed; hate. Davros made his creatures feel only hate, hate towards all life forms that weren't like them, and also the desire to destroy those life forms, for all other life forms were to be seen as threats to the survival of The Daleks.

"We learned all of this when The Daleks tried to conquer the old Hakonian empire. They underestimated our dark magic and they lost. And now we've underestimated them. I guess turnabout is indeed fair play."

Ikura glared at the five Daleks, "you might as well kill my comrades here and now, for when Maleficent hears that we've lost two Hakonian armadas and a hell of a lot of Heartless, as well as the Uridium, we'll be lucky to still be sane after she's done with us."

"Uridium," said Sora, "is that the weird element you've been looking for?"

"Maleficent discovered a Synthesis recipe for an item that can control Nobodies," said Grekor, "Uridium is the primary ingredient in the recipe." he glared at The Daleks, "and when Maleficent finds out that you interfered in her affairs, she'll show you why she is the mistress of all evil! She will come for you, and then you will know the true meaning of fear."

"DALEKS DO NOT FEAR ANYTHING!" said the third Dalek, "DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!"

"DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!" shouted the other Daleks.

"There's a few things I don't understand," said Riku, "why are you using The Heartless to do your dirty work?"

"WE ARE BUT A HANFUL OF DALES THAT SURVIVED THE LAST GREAT TIME WAR," said the fifth Dalek, "NEARLY EVERY DALEK WAS DESTROYED BY THE INFERNO IGNIGHTED BY THE DOCTOR. WE SURVIVED THE INFERNO, AND THEREFORE ARE SUPERIOR. BUT WE ARE ONLY A FEW, AND THE HEARTLESS PROVED TO BE TOO PERFECT A RESOURCE TO PASS UP."

"HEARTLESS ARE AS CLOSE TO PERFECT AS DALEKS," said the first Dalek, "WHEN THE TIME COMES THEY WILL BE DISCARDED BUT FOR NOW THEY SERVE US."

"If you're so superior," said Ikura in a taunting manner, "how come you're among the last of your kind? How is it that every time you Daleks crossed paths with The Doctor, he always emerged victorious, while you are reduced to a handful, barely strong enough to rebuild."

Ikura looked at Sora and the others, "The Daleks feared The Doctor so much that they gave him a nickname; _'The Oncoming Storm.'_"

"We've heard about The Doctor," said Kairi, "but who is he?"

"That's the thing," said Ikura, "only The Time Lords know the true names of each other. And The Doctor is the last of The Time Lords. They all died with The Daleks in the last battle of the war. They sacrificed their own world, Gallifrey, to wipe out their mortal enemies."

"The Time Lords," sneered Grekor, "so called guardians of time. They had powers of the mind the likes of which you Keyblade Wielders could only dream about. They had mastered time travel and were nearly immortal. They could have been the rulers of all of existence, yet choose to remain in their ivory tower of a world, observing events as they happen and seldom interfering."

"The Doctor was an exception," said Ikura, "a renegade who desired to live, truly live, by traveling through time and space, experiencing history as it happened and sometimes being the cause of historical events. I almost admire him, if he weren't the cause of the old empires' final collapse."

"How'd he'd do that?" Kodai asked.

"ENOUGH USELESS WORDS!" snapped the fifth Dalek, "YOU HAVE INFORMATION WE DESIRE, AND YOU WILL GIVE IT TO US OR BE EXTERMINATED!"

"You're going to kill us anyway," said Captain Okita, "Why should we answer any of your questions?"

"BECAUSE YOU ARE HUMAN," said the first Dalek, "AND HUMANS HAVE WEAKNESSES THAT CAN BE EXPLOITED. MOST OF ALL IS YOUR COMPASSION. YOU CANNOT BARE TO WITNESS SOMEONE IN PAIN."

"ACTIVATE AGONIZER RAY!" said the second Dalek.

Just then Yuki was surrounded by a purple light that hummed loudly. She then screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground, thrashing about as the purple light tormented each and every cell in her body.

"No!" shouted Kodai.

"Stop it!" said an outraged Kairi, "you're killing her! I can sense it. If you keep this up, she'll die!"

"YOU HAVE PREDICTED CORRECTLY," said the first Dalek.

"Stop it," said Kodai in a defeated tone, "I'll…I'll tell you whatever you want to know about _The Yamato_, just stop hurting Yuki!"

"No!" gasped Yuki as she struggled to stand up despite the pain, "don't you tell them anything, Kodai! Captain, don't let Kodai tell these monsters about _The Yamato_!"

"INCREASE AMPLITUDE!" said the second Dalek. The humming of the pain light got louder and Yuki collapsed again, screaming with fresh agony.

"Stop it!" shouted Kodai, "I said I'd tell you!"

"AND YOU WILL," said the first Dalek.

"RELEASE AGONIZER RAY," said the second Dalek, and the pain beam stopped. Yuki gasped in relief and passed out, while Kodai, Analyzer, Shima and Captain Okita rushed to her side, followed by Sora and Kairi.

"She's alright," said Kairi as she used her magic to check on Yuki, "it's like she's big hit by a stun gun. Her body's energy has been drained, but I can fix that," she then used her healing magic that soon got Yuki back on her feet.

"Now I definitely believe in magic," said an amazed Yuki.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Kodai asked earnestly.

"Like I'm ready to take on all of Gamilus," said a smiling Yuki.

"THE YOUNGER FEMALE HUMAN POSSESSES ABIILITIES UNKNOWN TO OUR DATA BANKS," said the third Dalek, "THIS MAY PROVE TO BE A THREAT TO OUR SURVIVAL."

"AGREED," said the first Dalek, "EXTRACT THE INFORMATION."

"ACTIVATE AGONIZER RAY," said the second Dalek.

Before anyone could react, Kairi was surrounded by the purple pain beam. She gasped in shock but didn't fall down. Her face was twisted in pain, but she held firm against the vile beam, "you'll have to better than that! I won't submit to you metal monsters!"

"Let her go!" shouted Sora, "stop it now!" He and Riku were about to summon their Keyblades, but Grekor stopped them.

"They'll kill you at the first sign of aggression," said Grekor, "I'm afraid your friend is on her own here."

"THE YOUNGER FEMALE HAS A STRONGER CONSTITUTION THAN PREDICTED," said the second Dalek, "INCREASING AMPLITUDE."

The energy of the pain beam went up and Kairi gasped as her torment got exponentially worse, but she didn't fall to the ground and she didn't scream. Not aloud that is. In her mind she was screaming, and Sora and Riku could hear her mental agony, and so could two others.

* * *

><p>…One Minute Earlier…<p>

In the corridors leading to the elevator, Tess and Aiden were moving invisibly in order to avoid detection. Tess held onto Aiden's hand as they crept towards the elevator.

"I don't feel any different," said Aiden as he and Tess crept through the corridor, "are you sure we're invisible?"

"Absolutely," said Tess, "and we'll both be invisible, so long as you keep hold of me, and I keep hold on my emotions. If I get upset, I'll lose control and the enemy can see us."

"I'll be sure to not say anything that'll upset you," said Aiden.

"You do that," said Tess, "just don't get any ideas, just because we're holding hands."

"What are you talking about?" Aiden asked, "we're holding hands in order for you to make me invisible, why would that give me ideas?"

"Don't you date on your world?" Tess asked.

"Of course they date on my world," said Aiden, "what's that got to do with holding hands?"

"A boy and a girl don't hold hands casually unless they're going steady," said Tess, "at least on my world that is."

"My world got over that inhibition long ago," said Aiden, "what else is holding back those on Metamore? Not kissing until the third date?"

"Fourth actually," said Tess, "there's a whole collage of small rituals that a boy and girl go through to express their feelings for each other. We send letters and exchange all sorts of gifts, and then the parents of the couple have to give their blessings before…"

But then Aiden gasped in pain and collapsed to the floor. Tess released her invisibility and knelt beside him, "what happened?"

"It's Kairi!" Aiden gasped, "they're torturing her!"

"How do you know that?" Tess asked as she helped Aiden up.

"We're psychically linked," said Aiden, "we can hear each others thoughts. I can feel her agony."

"Wait," said Tess, "I…I can feel it as well…They're hurting Kairi, she's in so much pain! We've got to hurry!" With that they ran for the elevator.

* * *

><p>"You let Kairi go right now!" shouted Sora, "Or I'll take you all apart!"<p>

"SILENCE!" shouted the fourth Dalek as it aimed it's blaster at Sora and fired a stun blast, knocking him down, "FURTHER INTERFERENCE WILL BE MET WITH EXTERMINATION!"

"You can't reason with Daleks, you dummy," said Orkal, "face it, your girlfriend is done for."

"No!" shouted Kairi as she fought against the pain, "I'm not giving up! I will not give in, especially to these rusting tin cans that can't even begin to imagine what love us! Give me your best shot, you ugly pepper shaker sons of bitches! I can take anything you give me and throw it right back at you!"

"THE YOUNGER FEMALE IS BEING UNCOOPERATIVE," said the first Dalek, "SHE IS NOT WORTH OUR EFFORTS. EXTERMINATE HER!"

"I don't think so," said a vicious voice. A demon with three eyes, pale yellow shin and elongated limbs that ended with claws appeared in the room. It aimed it's hand at the source of the pain beam and shot a blast of dark magic at it, destroying the emitter and freeing Kairi. She gasped with relief and collapsed to the floor, but Sora caught her before she hit the ground.

"I wouldn't want the goods damaged when I deliver her to the boss," said the demon.

"What the hell…!" exclaimed Kodai, "what is this thing?"

"It's a demon," said Riku, "and unless I'm wrong, it's one of the demons that's been looking for something throughout the realms of light."

"Indeed," said the demon as it eyed Kairi, "and I've found half of what my fellow demons are looking for."

"You've been looking for one of the Keyblade Wielders?" Gerkor asked.

"Specifically this one," said the demon as it pointed at Kairi, "she has what my master needs. Maleficent can acquire an item that my master also desires, but what he really needs is a Keyblade Wielder who is also a Princess of Heart."

"What are you talking about!" Sora exclaimed, "why do you want Kairi!"

"That's none of your business, little boy," said the demon. It looked at the Dakels, "I'll just take what I need and leave you to your fun." it advanced towards Kairi.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" shouted the fourth Dalek, "INTERFERENCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!" it aimed and fired a stun blast at the demon, but it took the blast like it was a love tap.

"As if you can stop me, tin pot," said the demon. It then shot a beam of dark magic at the offending Dalek, but it's personal shields negated the blast.

"ACTIVATE HOLDING CELL!" said the first Dalek, and the demon was surrounded by a blue force field. It touched the energy barrier experimentally and found it couldn't get out.

"An interesting force field," said the demon, "I doubt that this will hold me long though."

"YOU WILL STAY WHERE YOU ARE," said the second Dalek, "UNTIL WE DEAL WITH THE HUMANS."

"Excuse me," said Ikura, "we're not human over here."

"THE HAKONIANS WILL BE DEALT WITH AS WELL," said the third Dalek.

"If you're going to destroy us," said Grekor, "at least destroy that pile of pig vomit over there first," he pointed at the demon.

"Why should I die at all?" the demon asked, "let alone before a filthy Hakonian?"

"You know the reason, you murdering bastard!" spat Grekor. He then looked at the Daleks, "he killed a friend of mine not too long ago. Alright, he wasn't so much a friend, more like a respected rival…well…a hated rival, but if anyone had the right to kill Trakino, it was me, not a demon."

"That particular Hakonian was in my way," said the demon, "he tried to stop me from gathering information that my master needs, and that Hakonian failed. My comrades have all the information they need," it eyed Kairi, "and here is half of what we need," it looked at The Daleks, "if you would just lower this foolish force field, I can take the girl and be on my way."

"You're not going anywhere until I've destroyed you, demon!" snapped Grekor.

"SILENCE!" snapped the fifth Dalek.

"I will not be silent!" snapped Grekor, "I have every right to speak my mind!"

"As do I!" said the demon, "if you're going to kill anyone, kill everyone except for me and the girl. She's coming with me, no matter what."

As Grekor, the demon and The Dakels continued their three-way argument, Sora felt a presence force its way into his mind. He didn't even have a chance to defend himself as the psychic voice of Grekor reverberated through his head.

_:Do not make any sudden moves, Keyblade Wielder. I am speaking to you telepathically:_

_:I hear you:,_ said Sora, realizing that the Hakonian wanted to talk, for if he was going to attack him, then Sora would be dead by now, :_but how can you talk with your mouth and your mind at the same time?:_

_:It's easy to learn to hold two different conversations at once,:_ said Grekor, _:But that's beside the point. If any of us, Keyblade Wielders or Hakonians, are going to survive this, you and your companions will have to make the first move.:_

_:Why?:_ Sora asked, _:You know more about The Daleks and that demon than my friends do, and I'm not even got to guess at how little Captain Okita and the others from The Yamato know.:_

_:It's true that my comrades and I have vast knowledge of both demons and Daleks,: _said Grekor, _:but The Daleks know of us as well. They countered our weapons, which most likely means that they must have adapted to our dark magic as well as our technology._

_:However, I'll wager 100 bars of Gold Pressed Latinum that The Daleks have never seen anything like a Keyblade.:_

_:And they haven't seen our kind of magic before,:_ said Sora, :_but why are you helping us?:_

_:Because The Daleks are the enemy of all life,:_ said Grekor, _:and even bitter enemies have to unite to defeat a greater enemy. But don't get any ideas about peace between you brats and my people. If we get out of this alive, we'll be right back where we started.:_

_:I understand,: _said Sora, _:so, do Daleks have any weaknesses?:_

_:Just one,:_ said Grekor, _:The Eyestalk. That electronic eye is the only means of visual stimulation for the mutated monstrosity inside the travel machine. Take out the eye and the creature is blinded, and when blinded, Daleks tend to go out of their minds with fear, even so far as recklessly firing their death ray at even their comrades.:_

_:So when we blind one of them,: _said Sora_, :we all have to take cover and hope for the best.:_

_:All the while trying to get out of the way,: _said Grekor, _:the other Daleks will try to eliminate their compromised comrade as soon as possible, then they'll come after us for the kill. But you'll have at best one chance to blind one of them. Once they realize you and your comrades have hidden weapons__**, **__they'll restrain you like that demon and you'll be helpless. So you'd better make your shot count, it'll be our best chance of staying alive.:_

_:Right,_: said Sora, _:blind them, take cover, run like hell and most importantly, don't miss. No pressure.:_

_:What are you saying to that Hakonian?: _Riku asked_, : I can hear you two talking, but he's got some sort of mind shield. All I've been hearing from you was nonsense.:_

_:It's like that Grekor guy doesn't trust the rest of us,: _said Kairi.

_:I'm going to try something that'll get us out of here,: _said Sora, _:when I do it, take cover and be ready to run like you've never run before.:_

_:Right!: _said both Riku and Kairi.

_:We'll help as well,: _said Aiden, while Sora could feel Tess give a mental nod of agreement.

_:Aiden? Tess?: _Sora exclaimed in his mind, :_I told you two to stay with the ship!:_

_:Sidney said she's be able to get both The Intrepid Heart and The Yamato free whenever you and the others are ready,:_ said Aiden, :_And Tess wouldn't stay put. I tried to stop her, but she insisted.:_

_:Where are you?: _Riku asked.

_:Right next to you,: _said Aiden, _:I got to tell you, it's weird being invisible. I can see all of you, but you can't see or hear me or Tess. She says to tell Riku she's sorry.:_

_:Tell her I said we'll talk when this is over,: _said Riku.

It was then that Grekor abruptly changed the three-way argument between Hakonians, demon and Daleks, "I'd just like to get one point clarified before we continue going around in verbal circles," he looked at The Daleks, "just how is it that you mutants gained control over The Heartless anyway?"

"I'd like to know that also," said Sora, sensing that this was the distraction that Grekor was going for.

"WE AQUIRED DIMENSIONAL TECHNOLOGY THAT ALLOWS US TO OPEN RIFTS TO THE SO CALLED REALM OF DARKNESS," said the first Dalek.

"You mean you stole it from someone you murdered," said Kodai.

"REGUARDLESS, THE TECHNOLOGY IS OURS," said the first Dalek, "FROM THERE IT WAS A SIMPLE MATTER TO CONTRUCT A DEVICE CAPIBLE OF EMITING A TELEPATHIC WAVELENGTH THAT HEARTLESS RESPOND TO."

"So they do respond to telepathy," said Grekor, "we only believed that those with darkness in their hearts could control them."

"YOU PATHETIC HAKONIANS HAVE NO RESPECT FOR TECHNOLOGICAL PERFECTION," said the second Dalek, "ALWAYS RELYING ON EMOTIONS TO GIVE YOU POWER."

"I'd love to continue this debate," said the demon, "but my comrades are waiting for me to deliver the prize." As if it were taking a walk in the park, the demon stepped out of the confinement field, "the girl is coming with me!" It started towards Kairi again.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" said the fourth Dalek. It fired it's death ray at the demon, but it just shrugged the death ray off.

"Who's pathetic now?" the demon asked in a taunting manner.

"MAXIMUM EXTERMINATION!" shouted the first Dalek. The second and fifth Daleks fired their death rays at full power yet the demon acted like they were nothing.

"I am a creature of a different sort of darkness," said the demon, "nothing derived from technology can hurt me!"

"Then how about this!" shouted Aiden as he and Tess appeared in the room. The both rushed at the demon and tackled it.

"INTRUDERS!" shouted the third Dalek.

"ENOUGH!" said the first Dalek, "EXTERMINATE THEM ALL!"

"Exterminate this!" said Sora as he summoned his Keyblade and threw it at the second Dalek. The Keyblade cut right through the eyestalk. The severed piece of machinery hit the floor at the same time Sora caught his Keyblade.

Almost instantly after it was blinded, the second Dalek went wind, mindlessly moving around in jittering motions, waving it's arms around randomly and shouting, "VISION IMPARED! I CANNOT SEE! MALFUNCTION! MALFUNCTION!" it then fired it's death ray at a random direction, hitting a nearby computer terminal.

"Everyone take cover!" shouted Sora. He, Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Aiden, Tess, Captain Okita, Kodai, Shima, Yuki, Analyzer, Orkal and Grekor ducked as the out of control Dalek kept randomly firing its death ray.

"Now what?" Kodai asked.

"We try to get out of here!" said Sora, "everyone head for the door!"

"MALFUNCTION! MALFUNCTION!" shouted the second Dalek as our heroes, allies and villains crawled across the floor towards the door while barely avoiding random death ray blasts.

"THE PRISONERS ARE ESCAPING!" said the fourth Dalek, "STOP THEM!"

"YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!" said the fifth Dalek as it got in front of Sora and aimed its death ray at Sora.

But then the blinded Dalek shot its death ray at the fifth Dalek. The blast melted through the armor of the travel machine and hit the mutated creature inside. It died with a horrible scream.

Another random blast hit the door and blew it open.

"Run for it!" shouted Sora as everyone got to their feet.

"ELIMINATE THE LOSE CANNON!" said the first Dalek as it and the fourth Dalek shot their death rays at the blinded second Dalek. It died screaming in agony.

"DO NOT LET THEM ESCAPE!" shouted the first Dalek as Sora and the others ran into the hallway. It, the third and fourth Daleks fired their death rays, hitting the remaining security officers from the Yamato.

"Elevator, now!" shouted Sora. They all ran too the end of the hallway and reached the elevator. The doors opened and everyone rushed in.

But then two more Daleks appeared in the hallway and fired their death rays. One blast hid the doors as they closed, but the other hit Orkal in the chest just as the doors finished closing. He shouted in agony as the death rays energy coursed through his body, highlighting his skeleton.

"Orkal!" shouted Ikura. He fell back into her arms, but was still alive, barely. His skin turned ash gray and was beginning to show cracks all over.

"I…never thought…I would die like this…" gasped Grekor as his skin continued to crack, "I…always wanted to…die in battle."

"Isn't there anything that can be done to help him?" Yuki asked.

"No," said Grekor gravely, "he's all but dead now."

"They won't get away with this," said Tess to Orkal as she held his cracking hand, which was beginning to flake off, "I swear that The Daleks will answer for this murder. Justice will be served."

"I never…was partial to justice," said Grekor as more and more of his body fell off in crumbling bits, "but thanks…anyway." He closed his eyes and his whole body crumbled into dust.

Ikura stood up and brushed the dust that was Orkal from her clothes, "alright, that does it," she said in a grave tone, "I'm going back up there and I'm going to kill every last one of those bastards!"

"You're crazy!" said Shima, "you saw what those death rays can do."

"I'm faster than I look," said Ikura.

"I also have unfinished business with the Daleks," said Grekor, "and that demon."

"But why does that demon want Kairi?" Sora asked.

"I have my theories," said Grekor, "none of them are ideas you'll find pleasant."

"What's the least unpleasant idea?" Kairi asked cautiously.

"That you've been chosen as a sacrifice to a S class demon," said Grekor, "and that your blood will feed that S class demon and allow it to break through the dimensional barriers into the realms of light so it can usher in a new era of chaos."

"That's the least unpleasant idea?" an exasperated Sora asked.

"It's better than the idea that your girlfriend has been chosen to bare the spawn of an S class demon," said Grekor.

"I so did not need that idea in my head," said a nauseated Kairi.

"Exactly," said Grekor, "so if you wished to retain your humanly virtue, run like you've never run before. And if you see any more demons, keep running."

"And what of you?" Captain Okita asked, "don't you fear such creatures?"

"Damn right we do," said Ikura, "but we've got other things to worry about, like what Maleficent is going to d to us when she finds out we've lost not only our entire armada, but the Uridium we mined."

"Why did you join with Maleficent in the first place?" Riku asked.

"It's complicated," said Ikura. The elevator then reached the lower level and the doors opened, "well, it's been fun, but my comrade and I have unfinished business to attend to."

Grekor then used a spell that forced Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Aiden, Tess, Captain Okita, Kodai, Shima, Yuki and Analyzer out into the corridor.

"Before you go, Keyblade Wielders," said Grekor, "if you see my grandson, tell him I said _Klaatu Barada Nikto_."

"What?" Sora asked.

"_Klaatu Barada Nikto_," said Grekor, "my grandson will know what you mean."

"Who's your grandson?" Kairi asked.

"You've met him already," said Grekor. Just then the elevator doors closed.

"What the hell was that about?" Kodai asked as he, Shima and Captain Okita drew spare blasters they had hidden.

"I have no idea," said Sora. Just then the hallway leading back to the two ships was filled with Heartless, "but we've got bigger things to worry about!"

* * *

><p>"THE HUMANS ARE INSUFFERABLE!" shouted the third Dalek.<p>

"THEY WILL ALL BE EXTERMINATED!" said the fourth Dalek.

"THIS WHOLE UNIVERSE WILL BE EXTERMINATED," said the first Dalek.

Just then the demon got up, "not everything in this universe. I will take the girl with me, and nothing in creation will prevent it!"

**The end of chapter 8.**

Next chapter sees our heroes and allies fighting their way back to their ships, leading to the final battle against The Daleks. Who will survive Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!


	9. Chapter 9: Escape and Judgement

Last time found our heroes and allies confronting the insidious Daleks. The vile creatures revealed themselves to be among only a handful of Daleks who survived the Last Great Time War and were carrying out their mission; to destroy everything that isn't like them.

Grekor, Ikura and Orkal were brought in for interrogation, while The Daleks tried to torture Kairi to learn the secret of her magic.

Just then the demon popped in, demanding to take Kairi with it. It turns out that the demons what were spying on the realms were in fact looking for Kairi. Why they want her, we don't know yet.

But then Orkal told Sora how best to disable a Dalek. Sora blinded one of the insidious creatures, creating enough chaos in the room for our heroes, allies and enemies to escape, but not before Orkal was struck down by a Dalek death ray. Ikura and Grekor left our heroes to escape, while the two Hakonians went back to finish some business with the demon and The Daleks. 'Nuff said, on with the show!

**Chapter 9: Escape and Judgment**

"Outta the way!" shouted Donald as he shot a massive Thunder spell at the throngs of Heartless in the hallway, blasting a path for our heroes to run through.

"Don't these things ever get tired!" Shima asked.

"What makes you think they ever sleep?" Kodai asked

"This is nothing," said Sora as he slashed a Neo Shadow, then blocked a Darkball from biting his head off, "this one time I took on a thousand Heartless all by myself."

"And don't get me started n what the rest of us have faced," said Aiden.

Just then a side panel in the hallway opened, revealing two Daleks.

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" shouted both Daleks as one of them fired its death ray at Kairi. She dodged it then threw her Keyblade at the creature. The Keyblade bounced off it's armor, but Aiden transmuted the floor under the Dalek into razor-sharp, diamond-hard spikes, impaling the creature from below and killing it.

The other Dalek fired its death ray at Aiden, but Aiden dodged it. The ray wound up hitting Analyzer, but it didn't harm him at all.

"As I said," said Analyzer as he rolled up to the Dalek, "I am a genius!" Analyzer then ripped the creature's death ray gun out from it's body, while Riku sliced off the top of the creature's armor off.

"Oh my god!" said an appalled Yuki as she and everyone else saw what was inside the machine. The real Dalek was a hideous creature that was barely more than a brain with a single eye and several writhing tentacles.

"So that's what a Dalek really looks like," said Riku.

The mutated creature glared contemptuously at Riku with its single eye, then leapt at him, grabbing onto Riku's throat with its tentacles. Riku tried to get the creature off of him as it began to strangle him, but the thing wouldn't let go.

"Hold still!" said Sora, "I'll burn it off!"

"Wait!" said Tess as she pulled out a strait razor and opened it. With the skill of a professional barber, she sliced off several of the creatures' tentacles, forcing the mutant off of Riku. He gasped in relief as the thing fell to the floor, twitching in pain from its severed tentacles. Kodai then took out his blaster and vaporized the thing.

"I thought you threw your fathers razor away," gasped Riku as he felt the bruises where the mutant tried to strangle him.

"It's a spare," said Tess as she wiped Dalek goo from the razor blade, closed it and pocketed it, "and is that all you've got to say to me? After I just saved your miserable life?"

"I…I just," said a flabbergasted Riku.

"Oh shut up already," said an exasperated Tess as she grabbed Riku by his shirt and kissed him. Riku was startled for a second, but then he kissed her back with equal passion.

"Whoa," said a stunned Kairi, while Aiden, Sora, Donald and Goofy looked at the kissing couple with dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

"I knew that she said she likes him," said Aiden, "and I guessed he likes her."

_:They're kissing already,: _said Kairi to Sora, _:it took us weeks to get the nerve up.:_

_:But we're not Riku and Tess,: _said Sora.

But then Kodai ruined the mood, "hey! There's a war going on!"

"I know," said Tess after she and Riku broke lip contact for some much needed air, "but that doesn't mean we can't have fun, now can we?"

"I won't argue with that, young lady," said Captain Okita, "but there's a time and a place for everything."

"He's right," said Riku, "we'll finish this later."

"That we will," said a grinning Tess, "that we will."

Just then two more Daleks trundled into the hallway, "EXTERMINATE! ANNIHILATE! DESTROY! DESTROY!"

"Oh shut up already!" shouted Riku as he blasted one of the Daleks with his Dark Aura, while Goofy smashed the eyestalk of the other Dalek.

"MALFUNCTION! VISION IMPARED! MALFUNCTION!"

Sora blasted the creature with a Fireball, melting it into the floor while also destroying the death ray.

"Just how many more of these things do we have to kill?" Aiden asked.

"Hopefully none," said Riku as they reached the fork in the hallway that branched off to _The Yamato_, "we're almost out of here."

"What do we do now?" Kodai asked, "Our normal guns don't work against Heartless, and I'll bet they're useless against Daleks as well."

"If we run into any of those things," said Shima, "we're done for."

"We'll go with you to _The Yamato_," said Sora, while Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement, "Sidney can beam us back to our ship."

"Good luck," said Riku and Kairi at the same time.

"You'll need it," said Aiden, while Tess nodded in agreement.

"Right," said Sora. With that he, Donald and Goofy went with Kodai, Yuki, Shima, Analyzer and Captain Okita down the other hallway to _The Yamato_, while Riku, Kairi, Aiden and Tess hurried towards _The Intrepid Heart_.

* * *

><p>"THE HUMANS ARE RETURNING TO THEIR SHIPS!" said the fourth Dalek, "ALL ATTEMPTS TO RECAPTURE THEM ARE PROVING INEFFECTIVE!"<p>

"THEY MUST NOT ESCAPE!" said the first Dalek, "ACTIVATE HOLDING CELLS! IMPRISON THEM WITH FORCEFIELDS!"

"HOLDING CELLS NOT OPPERATIONAL!" said the third Dalek, "TRACTOR BEAMS ARE ALSO OFFLINE!"

"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?" shouted the first Dalek, "EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!"

"FORIEN PROGRAM DETECTED IN COMPUTERS!" said the fourth Dalek, "IT IS THE SAME ARTIFICAL INTELEGENCE AS BEFORE. IT HAS SABOTAGED THE FORCE FIELDS AND TRACTOR BEAMS!"

"Looks like your computers need debugging," said the demon as it grinned viciously.

"SILENCE!" snapped the first Dalek, "YOUR INTERFERENCE WILL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED! PREPARE FOR EXTERMINATION!"

"Don't make me laugh!" said the demon, "your weapons cannot harm me!"

"But mine can!" shouted Grekor as he sent a curse at the demon. It barely dodged the curse, then sent a blast of dark magic at Grekor.

"Haven't you had enough, Hakonian prick!" the demon shouted as it and Grekor kept trading blasts of dark magic, "you've lost! Just accept it!"

"It's not over until you're dead, bastard!" shouted Grekor, "you killed my friend; your ass is mine!"

"Dream on!" shouted the demon.

"ENOUGH!" shouted the first Dalek, "YOU WILL ALL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"Shut your frigging trap already!" shouted Ikura as she jumped over Grekor, ran past the demon and kicked the first Dalek with enough force to shatter a brick wall. Yet her kick failed to penetrate the creature's force field. She then had to jump out of the way to avoid several death ray blasts.

"YOU WILL ALL BE EXTERMINATED!" shouted the first Dalek as all the Daleks in the room kept trying to blast Ikura, but she was too fast for them.

But then Ikura nearly ran into the wall and had to stop for half a second. This was long enough for one of the Daleks to aim and fire. She jumped but part of the death ray blast hit her. She screamed in agony as part of her body was filled with the deadly energy, causing about a third of her skeleton to be made visible.

Several Daleks closed in on the disabled Ikura. "YOUR ANTICTS WILL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED," said the first Dalek, "YOU WILL TELL US WHERE THE REST OF THE HAKONIANS ARE."

"Or what?" Ikura asked through gritted teeth, "you're going to torture me! I'll tell you nothing! Nothing!"

Just then Grekor finished blasting the demon across the room, "pathetic demon!" smirked Grekor.

But then the third Dalek fired its death ray at Grekor. He tried to get out of the way but was hit in the arm. His left side was filled with the death ray energy and his skeleton was partially illuminated.

"Damnit!" shouted Grekor as he fell to the floor.

* * *

><p>"We're almost at <em>The Yamato<em>!" shouted Kodai as he, Yuki, Shima, Captain Okita, Analyzer, Sora, Donald and Goofy ran to the end of the hallway. They reached the airlock and rushed in.

"I never thought I'd be so happy to be back on this ship," said a relieved Shima as they all headed for the elevator to the bridge.

_:Kairi,:_ said Sora, _:you and the others okay?:_

_:We're fine,: _said Kairi, _:We just got back to _The Intrepid Heart_.:_

_:Sidney says that she took care of the tractor beams,: _said Riku, _:and that both ships have enough power to get away and fight.:_

_:Awesome!: _said Sora. He then told Kodai and the others the good news.

"Excellent," said Captain Okita as the lift reached the bridge. Kodai and Yuki ran to their stations while the captain walked calmly to his station.

"Captain!" said Sanada, "we're no longer being held by the tractor beam, and Chief Tokugawa says that the Wave Motion Engine has been recharged enough for us to maneuver and fight."

"Outstanding!" said Captain Okita, "Shima, I believe we've worn out our welcome. Start thrusters! Hard to starboard!"

"Thrusters on!" said Shima, "helm answering hard to starboard!" The ship lurched to the right and was free of the Dalek mother ship.

On the view screen, Sora saw _The Intrepid Heat _also lurch away from the Dalek mother ship and was heading away as well.

"Once we're clear," said Captain Okita, "turn us around and prepare for battle."

"All hands!" said Yuki into the ship's intercom system, "battle stations!"

A loud klaxon sounded throughout the ship.

"Incoming transmitting from _the Intrepid Heart_," said Yuki.

"We're ready to fight," said Riku over the radio, "Sora, we can beam you over when you're ready."

* * *

><p>"OBLITERATOR MISSILE ARMED AND READY!" said the fourth Dalek.<p>

"TARGET THE INTURDER SHIPS," said the first Dalek, "EXTERMINATE THEM ALL!"

* * *

><p>"Captain!" shouted Yuki, "the Daleks just fired a Cobalt-infused missile at us!"<p>

"Fire counter missiles!" shouted Captain Okita.

"Firing counter missiles!" said Kodai. Several smaller missiles shot from _The Yamato_ and headed for the Dalek missile. The smaller missiles exploded, their blasts creating energy barriers that the enemy missile hit and detonated with enough force to rock both _The Yamato _and _The Intrepid Heart _down to their bolts.

On the _Yamato _bridge, sparks were flying everywhere as circuits shorted out and computer panels exploded. One computer panel flew towards Kodai and hit him on the shoulder, knocking him out of his seat.

"Kodai!" shouted Yuki. She and Sora rushed over to Kodai and helped him stand up, but his right arm hung limply.

"I think my shoulder's broken," said Kodai through gritted teeth.

"Dr. Sado to the bridge at once!" said Captain Okita into the intercom, "and someone give me a damage report on the double!"

"Captain!" said Chief Tokugawa, "only minor damage to the ship, nothing that can't wait. We still can maneuver and fight."

Just then Dr. Sado hurried onto the bridge with a black medical bag, "now where's this patient of mine?"

"Broken shoulder," said Kodai as he grimaced against the pain, "but I can still fight!"

"Can you press a button or pull the Wave Motion Gun trigger without your right hand and arm?" Dr. Sado asked as he opened his black bag, "I don't think so."

"Sora," said Captain Okita, "Take Kodai's position!"

"Me?" Sora asked, "but I don't know how to use your systems, and I defiantly don't know how to fire the Wave Motion Gun."

"It's easy," said Kodai as Dr. Sado examined his shoulder, "just aim and pull the trigger."

"There's no time for doubts, Sora!" said Captain Okita, "I'm hereby naming you an honorary crewmember of _The Yamato_; Acting Gunner's Mate First Class. Now assume your position!"

"Yes, Captain!" said Sora as he realized that now wasn't the time for arguing. He hurried to Kodai's seat.

"Those buttons coordinate the Shock Cannons," said Kodai as Dr. Sado immobilized his broken shoulder, "and those coordinate the pulse lasers. The firing controls for the Wave Motion Gun are self explanatory."

"Right," said Sora as he familiarized himself with the controls.

"Sora," said Riku over the com line, "we had to raise shields against that missile. We're fine over here, but what about you?"

"Everyone's fine on _The Yamato_," said Sora, "but Kodai's out of action. Captain Okita wants me at the weapons station, so I won't be beaming over to you any time soon."

"You be careful over there," said Kairi.

"You to," said Sora, _:we'll be together again before you know it.:_

_:I'll hold you to that,: _said Kairi.

* * *

><p>"PREPARE ANOTHER OBLITERATOR MISSILE!" said the first Dalek, "THE HUMANS MUST BE DESTROYED!"<p>

"You pathetic toss pots!" snapped Grekor as he and Ikura tried to sit up, but the death ray energies they received were beginning to take their toll on their bodies. "That bigger ship, _The Yamato_, it has defenses against your missiles. And the ship of The Keyblade brats, they'll probably either dodge it or shoot it down."

"THE HAKONIAN PROVIDES VALID INFORMATION," said the third Dalek.

"THEY WILL PROVIDE MORE," said the fourth Dalek, it aimed its death ray at Grekor and Ikura, "YOU WILL TELL US HOW TO DEFEAT THE HUMANS."

"Or what?" Ikura asked, "you're going to torture us? We're as good as dead as it is," she held up her hand, on which the skin was already turning ash gray, "what makes you think we'll help you mutant bastards with anything!"

"BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH HAKONIANS HATE DALEKS," said the first Dalek, "YOU HATE THOSE HUMANS EVEN MORE AND WISH TO SEE THEM SUFFER."

"The rust bucket has a valid point," said Grekor as he looked at Ikura, "we did promise Maleficent that we would destroy the brats, and since you and I won't be in this existence for much longer," he held up his hand, showing that it was also turning ash gray, "we might as well as make due with our promises."

"Yes," said Ikura, "we'll keep our word to Maleficent," she looked at the Daleks, "alright, you want to beat the brats? Try swarming them. The Keyblade ship has shields, but any shield can be overwhelmed. Unleash enough firepower on them and the brats are as good as dead.

"As for _The Yamato_, just get one good blast to their engines. Or better yet, hit them with an Electromagnetic Pulse. That will surely cripple their engines and leave them helpless."

"YOUR INFORMATION IS VALID," said the first Dalek.

"BATTLE COMPUTER ALSO ACCEPTS INFORMATION AS VALID AND HAS ALTERED STRAGETY," said the third Dalek, "LAUNCHING DRONE SHIPS!"

* * *

><p>"Captain!" said Yuki, "the Dalek Mothership has deployed several saucer ships."<p>

The view screen showed about a dozen Dalek ships that looked like flying saucers, yet each counter-rotating ship was bristling with death rays.

"One hit from one of those things will break _The Yamato _in half!" said Shima.

"Don't count us out so easily, Shima," said Sanada, "our armor can hold out against their death rays, not for long, but we will hold."

"Launch Black Tigers!" said Captain Okita, "Sora, ready to fire all weapons!"

"Shock Cannons locking on targets," said Sora, "Pulse Lasers ready!"

* * *

><p>"Our shields can hold out against those death rays," said Sidney as Riku piloted the ship to a offensive position alongside <em>The Yamato <em>and a dozen Black Tiger fighters, all of them facing off against the dozen Dalek drone ships, "but not for long."

"But _The Yamato _has no shields of her own," said Aiden as he programmed his station to take on Donald's roll of keeping an eye on the magical balance in the ships' engine, "and I honestly don't know how much punishment her armor can take."

"Then let's not give those metal maniacs a chance to do any harm," said Kairi, "let's take them down!"

"I think they've already made the first move," said Tess as she took Goofy's seat at the weapon's station. Sure enough, three Dalek ships were heading for _The Yamato_, while the remaining nine had assumed a wedged-shaped attack formation and were heading for _The Intrepid Heart_.

"All weapons are fully charged!" said Tess, "locking onto the lead ship!"

"Fire!" shouted Riku.

Tess fired the ships' lasers, hitting the lead Dalek ship with Thunder, Blizzard and Fire damage, then shooting a pair of missiles that hit the enemy ship, all together delivering enough damage to knock out its engines.

The other eight Dalek ships broke formation and began swarming _The Intrepid Heart, _deluging her with death ray fire as the eight enemy ships flew circles around her.

"I can't get a solid lock on any of them!" shouted Tess, "they're too fast!"

"Then we'll have to be faster!" said Riku as he plotted the ship through a zigzag course in order to shake off the Dalek ships, yet they kept shooting.

"Shields are holding!" said Aiden, "but they're drawing more and more energy from the core! If things keep going they way they are, the core could lose balance!"

"And we explode," said Riku, "I know. Hang on!" he then put the ship through a spiral move, spinning the ship along its central axis, while Tess kept firing the ships lasers and missiles. Two more Dalek ships were damaged by this maneuver, but the other six ships kept attacking.

"How's _The Yamato _doing?" Riku asked.

"They're holding their own," said Sidney, "but they've lost four Black Tiger fighters. Those smaller lasers just aren't effective against that Dalek armor. The other Black Tiger fighters are being recalled."

* * *

><p>"All Black Tigers fighters recovered!" said Shima as he pulled <em>The Yamato<em> through a hard left.

"Firing Shock Cannons!" shouted Sora. The ship's main guns fired at one of the Dalek ships, but it avoided the triple-helix blasts. "Why won't they hold still!"

Just then one of the Dalek ships swooped in for a strafing run, hitting _The Yamato _with several blasts that shook the whole ship but didn't do much damage.

"You'd think they'd make it easy for us once," said Donald as he and Goofy held on as _The Yamato _turned sharply again.

"Then things would be bornin,'" said Goofy.

"There's still six more Dalek ships attacking _The Intrepid Heart_," said Yuki as she checked the ships' radar.

"And we're still in trouble!" said Shima as he pulled _The Yamato _through a hard right to avoid one of the Dalek ships attacking them, but then had to turn again to avoid another, all the while being strafed by the third.

"We've got all the firepower we need in the Shock Cannons to blow those things to pieces!" said an irate Sora as another Shock Cannon blast missed, "but our weapons are too slow!"

"Captain!" said Sanada, "I think I have a way of evening the odds. As far as we can tell, those ships attacking us are just drones being controlled by the enemy mother ship, and they're being controlled via a specific carrier wave. If I can jam that signal…"

"Then they'll stop and we can hit them!" said Sora.

"Maybe," said Sanada, "it's still a question of how strong their signal is, and how long before they realize I'm trying to jam them. If Dalek technology is as advanced as I think it is, then they can counter my countermeasures."

"Do your best, Sanada," said Captain Okita, "your plan may be our best chance of winning."

"Yes, Captain," said Sanada. He then began transmitting a jamming signal through the ship's communications array.

* * *

><p>"I'm picking up a strange signal coming from <em>The Yamato<em>," said Sidney, "it's aimed at The Dalek ships."

"It's like they're trying to jam them," said Kairi, "but will it work?"

Just then the ship shook from a particularly brutal death ray blast.

"Shields down to 83%!" said Sidney. Another brutal blast hit the ship, "61%!"

* * *

><p>Sora and the others on the bridge were nearly knocked out of their seats as a massive death ray blast hit the ship near the engines.<p>

"Hull breach on Deck C!" said one of the bridge officers, "we're venting atmosphere! Sealing off that section, now!"

"Casualty reports!" shouted Captain Okita.

"Only minor injuries," said Dr. Sado through the intercom, "but things will keep getting worse unless you guys up there end this!"

"Let me resume my station, Captain!" shouted Kodai through the intercom, "I'm fit for battle!"

"Shall I restrain him, doctor?" Analyzer asked.

"By all means," said Dr. Sado. Through the intercom Sora and the others on the bridge heard Kodai arguing with Analyzer as the android strapped Kodai to an examination table.

"How's that jamming coming, Sanada?" Shima asked as he piloted _The Yamato _away from one Dalek ship, only to be strafed by the other two, causing _The Yamato _to shake yet again.

"Another minute an I'll have it," said Sanada. The ship then took a triple blast, causing more panels to short out on the bridge.

"We've got hull breaches on nearly every deck!" shouted the damage control officer.

"Sanada!" shouted Captain Okita in an insisting tone.

"Got it!" shouted Sanada as he pressed the appropriate button, "transmitting jamming signal!"

Within seconds the strafing stopped as the three attacking Dalek ships, as well as the other Dalek ships attacking _The Intrepid Heart_, stopped dead in space.

"It worked!" said Shima.

"Let's not celebrate too soon!" said Captain Okita, "Sora!"

"Firing Shock Cannons!" shouted Sora. All the ship's main guns fired. The triple energy blasts hit the three Dalek ships and destroyed them.

At the same time, _The Intrepid Heart _turned around and fired its weapons as the other crippled Dalek ships and destroyed them.

"And that's how we do that," said Sora.

* * *

><p>"THE STRATAGEM HAS FAILED!" shouted the third Dalek. It aimed its death ray at Grekor and Ikura, who were looking more and more ash-gray by the second, while small cracks began to appear on their faces, "THE HAKONIANS LIED TO US!"<p>

"It's not our fault that you're so hung up on destroying everything that you can't anticipate the imagination of individuals," said Grekor as he and Ikura finally stood up.

"ENOUGH USELESS WORDS!" shouted the fourth Dalek. It fired its death ray, hitting both Grekor and Ikura. They both screamed in agony and fell to the floor.

"Danm," said Ikura as her skin turned completely gray and she began to fall apart, "I hate losing."

"You're not alone," said Grekor as he watched his hands crumble to dust.

"Let's just hope the brats have better luck than we did," said Ikura. With that her whole body collapsed into dust.

"I only hope that The Keyblade Wielders deliver the message to my grandson," said Grekor, "Reddik's the only one among our people who can truly lead us to our promised land, him and Rakel." With that Grekor crumbled into dust.

"STATUS ON OBLITERATIOR MISSILES," said the first Dalek.

"OBLITERATOR MISSILES READY!" said the third Dalek, "TWO MISSILES ARE PREPARED AND LOCKED ONTO THE INTRUDER SHIPS!"

"THEN FIRE!" shouted the first Dalek, "EXTERMINATE! ANNIHILATE! DESTROY!"

* * *

><p>"Captain!" shouted Yuki, "two cobalt missiles have been launched."<p>

"Fire counter missiles!" said Captain Okita.

"I'm firing them!" said a frantic Sora as he kept pressing the missile-firing button, "but they're not launching!"

"The firing circuits for the missiles have been damaged!" said one of the bridge officers.

"Shima! Evade!" Captain Okita ordered.

"They're too fast!" said Shima as he desperately tried to get _The Yamato _to turn in time, "we're not going to get out of this one!"

"We've got them!" shouted Riku over the com line. The tactical display showed _The Intrepid Heart _heading for two incoming missiles. The ship fired its lasers at one of the missiles and destroyed it.

"That's one!" said Sora, "Riku, can you guys get the other one?"

"We just tried," said Riku in a grave tone, "I'm sorry, Sora, but we can't get it in time."

"We're not gong to avoid it in time," said Shima as he tried to get the ship to turn.

But then the missile exploded 200 meters from _The Yamato _without detonating its warhead.

"How'd that happen!" Kodai asked.

"Thought you folks could use a hand," said group Captain Quartrane over the radio.

"Captain!" said Yuki, "it's the Micandorians!"

Sure enough the missile was destroyed by the fighters from Micandor V.

"My people would be sorry if we didn't help you after you helped us," said Quartrane, "us V's, and them other guys over on Micandor IV."

The tactical display showed not only the fighters from Micandor V, but also a large taskforce from Micandor IV.

"With all of us working together," said Quartrane, "we'll be sure to beat them Daleks!"

"Without a doubt," said Sora. Just then a status light on his consol blinked green, "oh, now the Side Missiles are working again," he said in an exasperated tone.

"We're sure to need them," said Captain Okita, "communications, patch me through to all ships." the communications officer pressed the necessary buttons and gave the captain the thumbs up, "This is the captain of _The Yamato _speaking. The enemy has thrown everything it has at us. Now it's time we did some throwing back. We will launch a counterattack and destroy The Daleks before they try to destroy anyone else!"

* * *

><p>"THE LIFE FORMS OF THE PLANETS HAVE INTERFERED AGAIN!" said the third Dalek.<p>

"LAUNCH OBLITERATOR MISSILES!" said the first Dalek.

"NO OBLITERATOR MISSILES ARE READY AT THIS TIME," said the fourth Dalek. "YET THERE IS ANOTHER METHOD OF EXTERMINATION AT OUR DISPOSAL."

"THE DEATH RAY ENERGY," said the first Dalek, "OUR REACTORS CAN FIRE A DEATH RAY BLAST THROUGH THE PRIMARY DEFLECTOR ARRAY AND EXTERMINATE EVERYTHING WITHIN THE SOLAR SYSTEM."

"BUT IF WE CHANEL REACTOR POWER THROUGH THE DEFLECTOR," said the fourth Dalek, "WE RISK OVERLOADING PRIMARY SYSTEMS, INCLUDING PROPULSION. REPAIRS WOULD TAKE DAYS."

"THE RISK IS WORTH TAKING," said the first Dalek, "THESE HUMANS AND ALIENS HAVE PROVEN FAR TOO MEDDLESOME. THEY MUST BE EXTERMINATED BY ALL MEANS AVAILABLE, EVEN IF WE RISK MAROONING OURSELVES. OUR SURVIVAL MUST TAKE PRECEDENCE."

"BATTLE COMPUTER CONCURS," said the third Dalek.

"CHANNEL ALL POWER FROM THE REACTOR THROUGH TH E DEFLECTOR ARRAY!" said the first Dalek, "EXTERMINATE THEM ALL!"

* * *

><p>"Wait!" said Sidney, "I'm picking up some strange readings from the Dalek mother ship. They're…no! They can't be that desperate!"<p>

"What are you talking about?" Aiden asked, "what sick plan are they going to throw at us now?"

"They're using their own reactor to channel death ray energy through their deflector array," said Sidney, "that much power will create a death-ray wave that will wipe out everything in the system! Including themselves!"

"How can they be that stupid?" Tess asked.

"They don't seem to realize that using that much power will fry all of their systems," said Sidney, "including the computer systems that keep their reactor from exploding. They think that whatever damage their ship will take can be repaired, but they're setting themselves up for their deaths as well as ours."

"Then we have to stop them," said Sora, "we have to call them, try to get them to stop."

"Why?" Tess asked, "haven't you heard how much they want to kill us? They're so wrapped up in their own personal hatred of everything that isn't a Dalek that they won't listen to reason, even if it will save their own miserable lives. If they want to blow themselves up, let them."

"And they'll kill everyone on Micandor IV and V in the process," said Captain Okita, "_The Yamato _and _The Intrepid Heart _could get away, but all the people of this star system will be killed."

"We have to stop them from firing their super death ray," said Kodai, "Captain, permission to fire the Wave Motion Gun."

"Unadvisable," said Analyzer, "sensor readings of Dalek Mothership tell that whole ship is composed of denser alloy than that of the smaller Dalek ships. Wave Motion gun would only scratch them."

"And our weapons won't work either," said Sidney.

"What about one of those cobalt missiles," said Aiden, "will that work?"

"Calculating," said Analyzer, " A detonation from a cobalt missile would significantly damage the Dalek mother ship, especially if missile detonation can be delivered to enemy deflector array."

"I already had that answer, rust bucket," said Sidney.

"But I delivered it better, hologram," said Analyzer.

"It's a good plan," said Shima, "but last time I checked, none of us have any cobalt missiles."

"But The Daleks have them," said Aiden, "if we can hack into their weapons computer and tell it to explode a missile, while it was still in the launch tube, then they'd go up like a supernova."

"That would be definitely do the job," said Sidney, "blow them up from the inside. Yes, it can be done. But it's risky. I barely managed to disable their tractor beams and force fields without their security programs damaging me. Now I'll have to go deeper inside their computers. Their countermeasures will surely catch me this time."

"Not if we distract them somehow," said Sanada, "and I believe I have the means to do so. Captain, I have an idea."

* * *

><p>"REACTOR POWER EXCEDING 110%," said the third Dalek, "ESTIMATED TIME TO FIRING, TEN RHELLS."<p>

"DIRRECT THE DEFLECTOR ARRAY AT THE INTRUDER SHIPS," said the first Dalek.

"DEFLECTOR ARRAY LOCKING ON TO INTRUDER SHIPS," said the fourth Dalek.

Just the view screens began to flicker and shake, as if receiving bad reception.

"THE INTRUDER SHIPS ARE ATTEMPTING TO JAM OUR SENSORS," said the third Dalek, "DEFLECTOR ARRAY WILL NOT ALIGN."

"COUNTER THEIR JAMMING!" ordered the first Dalek, "EXTERMINATION MUST PROCEED!"

"THE JAMMING IS BEING CARRIED ON A RANDOMLY CNANGING FREQUENCY," said the fourth Dalek, "COUNTERMEASURES INNEFECTIVE."

* * *

><p>"Brilliant, Sanada!" said Shima, "using the controlling signal to transmit the jamming signal right back at them."<p>

"I only started on the Dalek control frequency," said Sanada, "then I instructed our computers to alternate our carrier frequency, so The Daleks can't isolate and counter it. But I don't know how long it will take for the meta-heads to figure out the pattern. Could be minutes, could be seconds."

"Let's hope its enough," said Sora.

"I'm inside their computer system again," said Sidney as she closed her eyes, "They haven't detected me yet. I'm trying to get to the weapons system…there! Now…yes! I have access to the programs for the cobalt missiles!"

"Can to blow one up?" Kairi asked.

"Yes and no," said Sidney as she opened her eyes, "There aren't any missiles ready to fire yet. The warheads haven't been armed, while the missiles themselves haven't been fueled…wait, there are two missiles in the process of having their warheads armed and fueled. I'll just speed up the process and…there. I just told the missiles to blow up. But it takes about a minute for them to do so."

"Everyone cover your eyes!" Sora shouted so that everyone on _The Yamato_, _The Intrepid Heart_ and the Micandorians could hear him, "this is going to be big!" At the same time all the ships backed away from the Dalek mother ship as fast as they could.

* * *

><p>"ALERT!" shouted the fourth Dalek, "OBITERATOR MISSILES ARMED AND DETONATING!"<p>

"WHAT!" exclaimed the first Dalek.

"COMPUTER WILL NOT ACCEPT DISARMING CODE!" said the third Dalek, "WHAT DO WE DO? WHAT DO WE DO!"

"NOTHING," said the fourth Dalek in a defeated tone, "WE HAVE FAILED, AND DALEKS WHO FAIL DO NOT DESERVE TO SURVIVE."

"NO!" shouted the first Dalek, "WE WILL NOT SUBMIT TO OBLIVION! WE WILL RETREAT FOR NOW. WE WILL RECOVER OUR LOSSES ELSEWHERE. WE WILL REBUILD OUR FORCES! WE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN EVER! WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT, WE WILL RETURN AND EXTERMINATE ALL WHO DARED TO DEFY US! DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!"

"DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!" shouted the third and fourth Dalek.

"INITIATE EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT!" said the first Dalek. It and the other Daleks on the bridge, as well as the remaining Daleks onboard the mother ship all glowed bright white for a second, then they all vanished.

* * *

><p>A few seconds later there were two massive simultaneous explosions that completely atomized the Dalek Mothership and everything on it.<p>

"It's over," said Riku with a relieved sigh, "it's over."

"Not exactly," said the demon as it teleported onto the bridge, "I still have my prize to claim!"

"You stay away from Kairi!" shouted Sora, "just wait till I get over there!"

"By the time you get here, boy" said the demon, "it'll be too late, and there's noting you or anyone can do to stop me!"

"Actually," said Kairi as she pressed the desired buttons on her consul, "there is. I hope you like the cold," she smiled, "'cause it's freezing where you're going."

"Excuse me?" the demon asked, just as the ship's transporter beamed it into the absolute zero depths of space.

"What happened?" Sora asked frantically.

"I just took care of the demon problem," said Kairi.

"And now I'm going to finish it," said Tess. She locked the ship's lasers onto the frozen demon, but hesitated to pull the trigger, "wait…I feel like I should say something cool."

"How about 'freeze in hell, bastard!'" said Aiden, "oh, how about, 'eat lasers, dick!'"

"No," said Tess, "I'll just keep it simple," she held her finger around the trigger, "goodbye!" and pulled it. The lasers fired and blew the flash-frozen demon to kingdom come.

"Now it's over," said Tess as she smugly crossed her arms.

**The end of chapter 9.**

Next chapter our heroes say goodbye to the crew of The Yamato and return to their universe and prepare for the next adventure. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!


	10. Chapter 10: Back to our Universe

Last time found Sora and his friends and allies fighting their way out of the Dalek mothership and back to _The Yamato_ and _Intrepid Heart_. The two ships then fought against the insidious efforts of The Daleks, but Sora and the others combined their efforts, as well as their friends from the Micador system, held off the Dalek attacks. Sidney then hacked into the Dalek computers and made two of the Obliterator missiles explode, destroying The Daleks. Oh, Tess and Riku kissed. 'Nuff said, on with the show!

**Chapter 10: Back to our Universe**

"We'll dock with _The Yamato _in a minute, Sora," said Riku as he piloted _The Intrepid Heart_ over to the larger ship.

"We'll all be waiting over here," said Sora, "and expect to meet more people. The Micandorians, from both planets, are coming aboard _The Yamato _as well. Some of their fighters are landing on _The Yamato's _fighter bay right now."

"So we'll get to meet Group Captain Quartrane?" Riku asked.

"He said he especially wanted to meet _The Intrepid Heart's _pilot," said Sora.

"So now what?" Tess asked as our heroes docked with _The Yamato _again.

"We're finally going to meet with Group Captain Quartrane," said Aiden, "just think of it. We're going to meet an alien species."

"We just met those Daleks," said Kairi.

"That's something else," said Sidney as she activated her mobile emitter so she could walk about freely on _The Yamato_.

"What exactly do we say during a first contact meeting?" Tess asked as the airlocks sealed and the hatches opened. Our heroes walked onto _The Yamato _and headed for the bridge.

"Just act natural," said Riku .

They reached the bridge, where Sora, Donald and Goofy were waiting for them.

"Sora!" shouted Kairi as she ran to him. They embraced and kissed, "that demon tried to kidnap me."

"I know," said Sora, "I was scared for you, but then you beamed it into space, awesome."

"And I blasted the bastard," said Tess, "aren't you going to give me credit?"

"You already have it as far as I'm concerned," said Riku.

Just then Sanada walked onto the bridge, and with him were six aliens wearing space-fighter flight suits. All of them were humanoid, but also animal attributes. The aliens resembled cats, with fur covering their bodies and whispers and tails. Three of the cat aliens were shorter than the others with slightly longer fur, while the other three had shorter tails but larger eyes.

One of the shorter feline aliens stood forward, "Group Captain Quartrane, at your service." He bowed respectfully. "On behalf of the people of both Micandor V and IV, I offer our most sincere gratitude. Our worlds wouldn't have survived without the selfless endeavors of both _The Yamato _and _The Intrepid Heart_."

"It was our pleasure to help," said Captain Okita.

"Even if it did cost us time we can't spend," muttered Shima.

"Don't be rude," Yuki whispered.

"Speaking of which," said Sidney. She looked at Sanada and Chief Tokugawa, "I have the specifics for the Wave Motion Engine upgrades. They won't last for more than a few days, a week and a half at most, but you'll be able to squeeze approximately 1,600 light years out of each Warp."

"That'll definitely make up for lost time," said a smiling Chief Tokugawa.

"That's if Gamilus doesn't decide to pay us another visit any time soon," said Kodai as he walked over with his right arm in a sling, "And who knows if there's any other Hakonians in the neighborhood?"

"I've got a feeling that Maleficent won't be sending any more Hakonians into this universe," said Riku, "that demon said that other demons were going to make a deal with Maleficent."

"They're going to give what Maleficent wants in exchange for me," said Kairi, "but why do demons want me?"

"It won't be good, whatever it is," said Sora, "but there's no way I'm going to let them get you, ever."

"And we'll help keep you safe," said Aiden.

"Damn right," said Tess, while Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.

"You guys are the best," said a smiling Kairi.

"Forgive me for interrupting," said Group Captain Quartrane, "but there's something that my people have been wondering about since this whole mess started. Why us? Why did The Daleks come here in the first place?"

"I wish we could give you a good explanation," said Captain Okita, "one that explains why so many good people had to die. But as far as anyone of us can tell, The Daleks came here because you were in their way."

"All those things know is hate," said Kairi, "they can see no other way to exist with others except to destroy them. You were just the latest victims of the evil of The Daleks."

"They shouldn't have been allowed to be created in the first place," said an irate Kodai.

"Getting upset over the past never did anyone any good," said Kairi, "and let me see that arm," she touched Kodai's injured arm and healed it. Kodai was astonished that his broken shoulder was instantly restored, but that didn't dilute his gratitude.

"Thanks! That was awesome."

"That's nothing," said Kairi, she then looked at Tess, "there's still the rest of you to clean up."

"You're really going to heal my scars?" Tess asked.

"I'll do better than that," said Kairi, "as soon as we get to a proper shopping mall, I'm going to totally redo your wardrobe," she then winked at Riku, "I think someone would appreciate seeing you at your fashionably best."

Just then Sidney blinked in surprise, "I'm receiving a subspace transmission from our universe!"

"They got through the rift," said an eager Sora.

"Oh, they did that alright," said Sidney, she then frowned with worry, "the message is from The King, and the message isn't good. It says that The King knows about the rift and has been studying it. But it's not going to last much longer. According to The King's best estimate, we have less than four hours until the rift closes forever, which will leave us trapped here."

Our heroes looked at each other in stunned silence for a second, then everyone bolted for the corridor that would take them back to _The Intrepid Heart_.

Sora ran back in, "sorry to leave so quickly."

"We understand," said Captain Okita.

"Just go before you're stuck in this crazy universe of ours," said Kodai, "we'll be fine, and thanks for everything."

"Thanks for being here," said Sora, "if we get the chance, my friends an I will come back."

"Sora!" shouted Kairi.

"I'm coming!" shouted Sora. He looked at the crew of _The Yamato _and the Micandorians and bowed. They bowed in return and Sora ran off the bridge.

"Strange kids," said Shima.

"An even stranger adventure," said Captain Okita.

"No stranger than meeting you weirdos," said Group Captain Quartrane, "but either way, thank you for all that you've done. I hate to say goodbye so quickly, but you people must be in a dreadful hurry." With that the Micandorians and the _Yamato _crew said their goodbyes.

"I believe we've just made a lot of friends," said Yuki as the crew watched _The Intrepid Heart_ and the Micandorian fighters leave the ship.

"Indeed," said Captain Okita. He then crossed his hands behind his back, "Chief Tokugawa, Sanada, how soon can you get to work on those upgrades?"

"Immediately," said both Sanada and Chief Tokugawa.

"We'll be able to get underway soon anyway," said Chief Tokugawa, "The Wave Motion Engine only needs a few more hours to recover, then we can resume our course."

"Onto Iscandor," said Captain Okita, "with only 274 days until Earth is extinct."

"We'll make it," said Yuki, "we have to."

"Everyone back home is counting on us," said Kodai, "we have to get to Iscandar and get the Cosmo Cleaner D. We have to."

_**274 Days Until The Destruction Of Earth**_

* * *

><p>"How much time do we have left?" Sora asked as the ship flew through hyperspace back to the oversized portal that our heroes first came through into the universe.<p>

"Less than thirty minutes!" said Aiden, "and we're 45 minutes away from the portal!"

"We're not going to make it!" said Tess in a frantic tone, "I knew we shouldn't have followed those ships!"

"We're not trapped in another universe yet!" said Kairi, "Sidney, can you push the engines some more? We've got to make up those fifteen minutes somehow."

"We've been going at 120%," said Sidney, "if we push the engines and the power core any more…"

"We'll risk the core going out of balance," said Riku.

"So it's either explode or be trapped forever," said Tess, "I'll take my chances with exploding."

"Sounds good to me," said Sora, "Sidney, take the engines up to 130%."

"Do it," said Riku.

"Please," said Kairi.

"Alright," said a reluctant Sidney, "well, it's been nice knowing you solids." The ship lurched as the engines pushed themselves that much further.

"We're really pushing it now!" said Aiden as the whole ship began to shake with sympathetic vibrations, "well, if nobody objects, I'm going to write my last will and testament now." He then took up a pen and paper and began writing.

"Why?" Tess asked, "if we blow up, nobody is going to read it, so what difference will it make?"

"It'll make me feel better," said Aiden as he kept writing, "'to my dear friends Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy, I leave all the money I made selling gold I transmuted from base metals, as well as all the money I made off of that little creep Rico during The Tournament of Light.'"

"That's a lot of money," said Sora.

"What about me?" Tess asked, "don't I get anything?"

"You get my house," said Aiden.

"You don't own a house yet," said Riku.

"Actually, I do," said Aiden, "I signed the paperwork the morning we left for Meridian. I paid for it in full, the idea of a mortgage really doesn't sit well with me, so all I have to do is buy furniture and move all my stuff in."

"That's awesome!" said Kairi, "what kind of house is it?"

"Not a big one," said Aiden, "just a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and a very big basement that I'm going to convert into a game room/alchemy lab."

"Cool," said Riku.

"That's great an all," said Tess, "but how can I inherit your house if I'm dead as well?"

"It's the thought that counts," said Aiden.

"We're coming up on the portal!" said Sidney, "and…wait…oh no! It's closing faster than we thought!"

"On screen!" said Sora. The forward viewer showed the large portal our heroes entered, but now it was much, much smaller, and it was still getting smaller.

"We're not going to make it!" exclaimed Donald.

"Yes we will!" said Sora, "Sidney, give it all you've got!"

"Oh well," said Sidney, "immortality is overrated. Increasing power core output to 150%!" The ship lurched forward harder as the ship screamed through hyperspace.

With barely room to spare, _The Intrepid Heart _punched through the closing portal and emerged back in the familiar universe. What was left of the portal vanished in a flash of light.

"We're back," said Sora as the ship powered down from hyperspace flight, "we made it." At that everyone on the bridge sighed in relief.

Just then several warning lights flashed on multiple consuls.

"I warned you about pushing the engines too far," said Sidney, "we're not in any immediate danger, but the engines and the core itself have been stressed almost to their limits, combined with all the damage we took from those Dalek weapons."

"She's right," said Kairi, "the hull has taken a lot of damage, and there's a whole lot of other things that combined could be serious trouble for us all."

"It's worse," said Aiden as he read a diagnosis screen, "the next trip through Hyperspace could rip the ship apart, unless we go really slow for hyperspace, like barely above the speed of light."

"I think we're going to have to go back to Disney Castle for repairs," said Riku.

"Wait," said Sidney, "Radiant Garden is significantly closer. At low-gear hyperspace flight, we can be there in 22 hours, where as Disney Castle will be 26 hours."

"Then Radiant Garden it is," said Sora.

"We were going to have to go there eventually," said Kairi, "I might as well face my past now and get it over with."

"We'll all be here to help you with that," said Sora, while Riku, Aiden, Donald and Goody nodded in agreement.

"Yeah," said Kairi, "together. Riku, set a course for Radiant Garden, steady as she goes."

"Steady as she goes it is," said Riku as he plotted the course and engaged the hyper drive at a lower setting.

"Sorry, Tink," said Sora as the ship entered hyperspace again, "looks like we're going to have to wait to thank you for the Pixy Dust again."

"Can I just say that this particular adventure was a complete waste of time?" a slightly irate Tess asked, "I mean, what was the point of going to that other universe if all it accomplished was nearly getting us killed and almost wrecking the ship?"

"You've still got a lot to learn about being a Keyblade Wielder," said Riku.

"And being a Hero," said Sora, "we helped saved all those people on Micandor IV and V from The Daleks and Heartless."

"And we stopped those Hakonians from getting that weird element for Maleficent," said Aiden, "that Uridium that they're using to control Nobodies."

"And we helped _The Yamato_," said Kairi, "I think that our meddling was just enough to help them complete their mission. I think we might have given them what they needed to save their world."

At that Tess thought about it and nodded in agreement, "I think you're right. You're all right. We did what had to be done and we did the right thing."

"In the meantime," said Kairi as she got up and stood next to Tess, "I've got 22 hours to remove your scars. One good thing about going to Radiant Garden now is that we can get your new wardrobe that much sooner."

"I'm also equipped with fashion protocols," said Sidney, "just in case you need a certified digital consultant."

"We'll keep that in mind," said Kairi as she and Tess got up, "I think we'll need some privacy for this."

"My room then," said Tess, she then looked at Sora, Riku and Aiden, "unless you boys want to see my scars again, all of them."

"No thanks," said a slightly disturbed Aiden, "once was enough."

"I think we should give the girls some privacy," said Sora, "and we've got almost a full day until we reach Radiant Garden," he paused as if something just occurred to him, "I should tell Leon and the others that we're coming."

"I'll transmit the message for you," said Sidney, "you just write it."

"While you're doing that, Sora," said Riku, "Aiden and I are going to try out the game room," he looked at Aiden, "I'm going to completely dominate you in Halo."

"Not if I dominate you first!' said Aiden as he and Riku raced for the door, "I may not know much about videogames, but I'm a fast learner!"

"Don't kill each other in the game without me!" shouted Sora as he hastily wrote a message for Leon and the others at Radiant Garden, gave the message to Sidney, then ran after Riku and Aiden, "your butts are so gonna get kicked!"

"Not if we kick your butt first!" said Riku.

"Alright!" shouted Aiden, "let's do it!" With that the three boys ran for the game room.

At that Kairi, Tess and Sidney looked at each other, "boys," they all said at the same time.

Riku then walked back in, "when you're feeling up to it, Tess, we have a lot to talk about."

"That we do, my dear friend," said a smiling Tess as she and Kairi headed for the infirmary, "that we do."

* * *

><p><strong>…New Hollow Bastion…<strong>

"And there has been no word of the armada since their last transmission?" Maleficent asked two Hakonian advisors.

"None, great one," said one of the advisors, "in fact, word has just come in that the spatial portal has closed, leaving Grekor, Ikura and Orkal trapped in the other universe."

"It was a fruitless expedition," said the other advisor in a defeated tone, "twelve of our warships and hundreds of our people, wasted for no good reason."

At that Maleficent shot up from her dark throne and glared down at the advisor, "you dare to question my will!"

"I…I didn't mean that, great one," said the sweating advisor, "I was merely implying that we should have waited to see if the portal was stable before sending the expedition. For all we know the armada still exists and is trapped."

Just then a lesser Hakonian ran into the room with a scroll and handed it to Maleficent, "well now," she said after reading the message, "it would seem that the armada has fallen. The Keyblade Wielders have returned to this universe."

She walked out to the balcony, "yes, it would seem that the expedition was a waste, of materials and personnel. But most of all, a wasted opportunity to obtain the Uridium needed for the Nobody-controlling rings."

Just then Pete lumbered onto the balcony, "you got to come to the front door, boss lady! You know them demons that's been pokin' their noses around the worlds? Well, some of 'em are at the front door and they want to talk to you."

"Is that so?" an intrigued Maleficent asked, "well then, show our guests in, Pete. We don't want to seem rude, do we?"

"I…uh…yeah," said an unsure Pete, "I'll go get them." With that he ran off the balcony.

"What about our comrades, Maleficent?" one of the advisors asked, "are we to just abandon them to their fates?"

"If they failed to return with the Uridium," said Maleficent, "then they proved themselves to be of no further use to me," she glared at the two advisors, "it would also seem that your entire race is proving itself to be of little use to me. I suggest you inform your fellow Hakonians that no further failures will be tolerated. The next time one of you nomads fail, I will punish not only the guilty one, but your whole pathetic race! Is that understood!"

"Yes, oh great and terrible mistress of all evil!" said both advisors in a groveling manner.

"Then get out of my sight before I punish you here and now!" snapped Maleficent, and the two Hakonians hurried out of the room.

"Things are not going as well as I had planned, my pet," said Maleficent to her raven as she walked back to and sat on her throne, "I should have had the reams under my thumb by now, and with them Kingdom Hearts."

She then called up images of Sora, Riku, Kairi and Aiden, "and it is all because of these meddling brats! Something must be done. The Keyblade Alchemist is essential to finding the remaining Princesses of Heart," the image of Aiden vanished, "but the other three, they are the lynchpin on which the light stands upon. Destroy those three and all the pathetic hopes of the realms will die. Yes, those three must die."

Pete then walked in with three demons. The first was tall and very thin, standing at nearly 8 feet and seemed to be little more than skin and bones. But it had a lot of bones, for it had six arms that ended in needle-tipped talons. It's skin was sickly green and purple and it had four eyes and a lipless mouth. It looked to have a sorrowful expression on its face.

The second demon was short, about 4 feet, and was all muscle with arms that ended in crab claws that could crush steel. Its indigo skin was like a lizards and it had a spiked tail. The way it ground its teeth gave the creature an attitude of pure rage.

The third demon was the most human-like; average height with short brown hair, medium skin tone and wore a gray pinstripe suit. The only thing that discerned this demon from a human was its yellow, snake-like eyes. It carried a large briefcase.

"Great Maleficent," said the human-like demon, "you honor us with this audience. I am called The Negotiator. This is Demolisher," it indicated the short lizard-like demon, which gave a short bow, all the while grinding its teeth.

"And this," said the suit-wearing demon as it indicated the sad-looking beanpole demon, "is The Scanner."

"Mistress of all evil," said the tall and thin demon, The Scanner, in a depressed tone as it bowed.

"We represent a group that seeks control over our own universe," said The Negotiator, "as well as a few adjacent universes. But we do not seek to impede on your territory. Far from it, I was sent here so that both our sides may benefit from mutual exchange."

"What sort of exchange do you seek?" Maleficent ask.

"And how do we know you things aren't up to something'?" Pete asked.

"You'll just as to take our word for it," said The Negotiator, "but before we go further," it then cast several anti-eavesdropping spells on the room, "one cannot be too careful."

"This is true," said Maleficent.

"Indeed," said the Negotiator, "now, as for how we can help each other," it looked at Maleficent, "my employer knows that you seek Uridium, in which you will Synthesize the means to control Nobodies."

"How'd you know that?" Pete demanded.

"Our intelligence gathering department is highly effective," said The Negotiator, "especially those who's talents specify in finding information."

"It was too easy to penetrate the pathetic minds of your minions from afar," sighed The Scanner, "Hakonians may think themselves superior. Believe me, they are not."

"So you know of my plan to control Nobodies," said Maleficent, "what else do you know?"

"We know that you're seeking the identities of the new Princesses of Heart," said The Negotiator, "and that one of your enemies, The Keyblade Alchemist, I believe he is called, he holds their identities in his subconscious mind. My associate can trawl his inner id for the remaining Princesses."

"Can this be done?" Maleficent asked in a slightly frantic tone, betraying her eagerness to the demons.

"Just bring me the whelp," said The Scanner, "most humans I can easily read their minds from a distance, but there are those, such as Keyblade Wielders, whom I need to touch in order to gain access to their most secret thoughts," he held up his multimpe needle-tipped claws, "Bring him to me, and I will give you the information you seek."

"What game are you guys playin' at?" Pete asked, "you want to give us the stuff we need to control Nobodies, and you're gonna give us the names of the other Princesses of Heart. But what do you want for it all? What's in it for yous?"

"I had hoped to establish a greater level of trust first," said The Negotiator, "but it seems that I should lay my cards on the table. Very well, my employer desire three things from you, Maleficent."

"You wish to give us two things in exchange for three," said Maleficent, "it hardly seems to be a fair exchange."

"We'll get to making it an equal exchange soon enough," said The Negotiator, "as for what my employer desires; first, we wish for your assurance that in the future, should your enterprises encounter ours, then there will be no hostilities. We merely wish for a relatively small territory and have no desire to impede on others."

"A non-aggression treaty," said Maleficent, "I will consider it, but at this time it seems unlikely. How can I promise to treat your employers with respect if I do not know them?"

"We represent a true mastermind of evil," said The Negotiator, "Gideon 'G-Man' Graves." It then took out a small black disk from the briefcase, a disk with a black chain. On the disk was a sigil of three G's, "and this is his crest, offered as a token of appreciation to the mistress of all evil."

"Bring it here," said Maleficent to Pete. Cautiously, Pete walked up to The Negotiator and took the disk by its chain and handed it to Maleficent. Upon closer inspection, the reverse side of the disk was covered in demonic scrip.

"Who's this Gideon guy?" Pete asked.

"A genius with many tallents," said The Negotiator, "and of many powers, powers of incredible darkness. He would have come here in person, yet circumstances, combined with a highly busy schedule, prevented Mr. Graves from appearing before you. In time he will come but for now I represent his desires and will."

"So be it," said Maleficent as she waved to Pete to put the black disk away, "very well, I accept your token, and I will consider your desire for a treaty. Now, what else does your employer, Gideon Graves, desire?"

"He seeks an item of great power," said The Negotiator, "one that has been sealed away in The Realms of Light, somewhere were not even our best intelligence gatherers can locate."

"All we know is that its somewhere on one of the worlds in this universe," said The Scanner, "and that it's guarded by spells and enchantments that no demon can penetrate."

"But you believe that others can retrieve this item," said Maleficent, "what is it that you seek?"

"I doubt you've heard of it," said The Negotiator, "it is a talisman; a gold disk about three inches wide, with a silver chain and set with twelve precious stones. It is called 'The Sacred Talisman of Zumakalis.' Mr. Graves wishes for this amulet to be brought to us so we can destroy it."

"You seek to destroy a talisman," said Maleficent, "tell me, is this Sacred Talisman of Zumakalis a threat to you?"

"All that needs to be known is that the talisman must be destroyed," said The Negotiator. "If there was time I would tell you the full story, but alas, there isn't."

"I will also take this into consideration," said Maleficent, "and your third desire?"

"Again, it would take far too long to explain why," said The Negotiator, "but Mr. Graves," it pointed at the images of Sora, Riku and Kairi still hovering in the air, specifically at Kairi, "he wants her."

"Your boss wants Kairi?" Pete asked, "why?"

"He just said it would take too long to explain, dumbass!" snapped The Demolisher, speaking for the first time, "Get a brain already, you stupid, fat cat!"

"Hey, I've got a brain, pipsqueak!" said an irate Pete, "I just get confused sometimes." He then glared angrily down at The Demolisher, "And I ain't fat! I'm big boned!"

"That's not what your spouse was thinking," said The Scanner, "I read the mind of your wife, Peg, on the way up here. She's plotting a way to put you on a diet, you and your son as well. In the mind of your wife, you both are morbidly obese."

"You stay out of my wife's head!" snapped Pete, "and stay away from my kids as well! And don't even think about bothering my dog, Chainsaw!"

"That will do, Pete," said Maleficent. She looked at The Negotiator, "I have my suspicions as to why your master desires Kairi, but I will not enquire to them at this time. If your master can deliver the Uridium I desire, as well as give me the information on the remaining Princesses of Heart, then he shall have what he desires."

"I hoped you would find this arrangement to your liking," said The Negotiator, "I have been instructed to remain in this dimension for as long as necessary to work out the details for the deal, there is still so much to discuss."

"Yes," said Maleficent as she smiled wickedly, "we have so much to discuss."

* * *

><p><strong>…Radiant Garden…<strong>

"They're on their way back," said Cid as he, Leon, Yuffie and Aerith read the message from Sora on the computer in Merlin's house. He sighed with annoyance, "I knew it. I build 'em a ship and they wreck it the first chance they get."

"It doesn't seem that bad," said Yuffie, "only a few damaged systems and a cracked hull. I'm sure you can patch it up in no time."

"Yeah," said an irate Cid, "only for those reckless kids to wreck the ship again and again."

"And you'll keep repairing the ship every time," said Aerith.

"It's not like I have a choice," sighed Cid, "you know I'd do anythin' for those kids."

"As we all would," said Leon, "but I've got other things to worry about. I'm sure that there's going to be another Heartless attack, Maleficent's been too quiet lately. And there's those demons that have been nosing around. What do they want?"

"I believe I may know the answer to that question, young one," said Merlin as he walked in, "but I'm afraid you won't like the answer."

Just then the entire world shook as if an earthquake was happening. The tremor lasted less than a second, and it wasn't that big, but it was enough to startle everyone on Radiant Garden.

"What the sam hill was that?" Cid asked.

The world then shook again.

"I think it's coming from outside," said Yuffie, "from above!"

They all rushed out to the Borough to see a small rift forming about a dozen feet up in the air above the street. It got bigger by one inch, causing a pulse that shook the world.

"Is it a Heartless attack?" Yufee asked as she drew her shuriken.

"I don't know," said Leon as he pulled out his sword, "but whatever it is, be ready."

By then the rift was nearly a dozen feet long and seemed to stop growing. It was tense few seconds as Leon, Yuffie, Areith, Cid, Merlin, and the other citizens of Radiant Garden, all looked up at the rift as it just hung there in the air.

Suddenly the rift shone brightly and pulsed again, this time shaking the world harder. The rift flashed again and spat out a man, who fell to the ground, before the rift vanished completely.

The man was a tall Native American in his mid-twenties or so, for his exact age was rather hard to find. He was well-muscled with short black hair, brown eyes and a very handsome face. He wore a light t-shirt and short jeans and tennis shoes.

"Can someone tell me what the heck just happened?" Cid asked.

"I could be wrong," said Merlin as he straightened his glasses, "and I have been wrong from time to time, but I believe we have a visitor."

The man then stood up slowly, disoriented from his fall.

"Are you alright, young man?" Merlin asked.

"I'm alright," said the man, "that was some weird…thing…that just happened to me."

"I think you just fell through a portal from another universe," said Leon, "this is Radiant Garden."

The man then looked around frantically, "oh no! Oh no! she's gone! Where is she!"

"Where's who?" Yuffie asked.

"You've got to help me!" said the man, "I can't sense her at all!"

"Sense who?" Aerith asked.

"Renesmee!" the man nearly screamed, "I can't sense her any more! She's lost somewhere, all alone! You've got to help me find Renesmee!"

"Just calm down already!" said Leon, "we'll help you find her, but you've got to calm down first."

At that the man did calm down somewhat, but he looked ready to start running around in search of the one he lost.

"Great," sighed Cid, "a nutcase that fell out of the sky. What a way to start a day."

"You got a problem, old man?" the stranger from the sky asked in an irate tone.

"He's just worried that you're hurt," said Aerith.

"Well he can relax," said the man, "I'm fine, but Nessie isn't."

"Nessie?" a confused Yuffie asked, "I thought you said your friend's name was Renesmee."

"It's her nickname," said the man.

"Well would you mind telling us your name?" Cid asked as he crossed his arms, "assuming you have a name at all."

"He's just worried that your mind's been messed up," said Yuffie, "that you might have amnesia."

"Well my mind's alright," said the man, "I think so. But I haven't forgotten my name; it's Jacob Black."

* * *

><p><strong>…Twilight Town…<strong>

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Hayner?" Pence asked as he, Hayner and Olette left the Sandlot and headed for The Usual Spot, "I mean, I miss Sora and Kairi as much as you do, but do you really think it's a good idea to go looking for them out in space?"

"Well it's better than just waiting for them to come back," said Hayner as they reached Market Street and walked up Station Heights, "they're out there facing who knows what kind of dangers, while we're stuck here training. I must have beaten Seifer a thousand times already in Struggle, and I'm really getting good with a real sword."

"And I'm getting the hang of magic," said Olette as they turned onto the Back Alley, "and Pence is doing great with those shield of his. But are we really ready?"

"We won't know unless we try," said Hayner as they reached The Usual Spot and went in. Inside on a table were three large cases. Hayner opened the one in the middle, revealing an ornately crafted sword in a blue scabbard. The blade was just under a meter long with a silver-plated crosspiece and handle, while the pommel was set with a large blue crystal.

Olette opened the longer of the cases, revealing a large bronze-colored staff carved with gold symbols. Pence opened the more square of the cases, revealing a pair of 18in-wide shields that were designed to act as both offensive and defensive weapons. He could hold one in each hand and use them to punch and block, while the shields could detach from the grips and be thrown like discuses.

"Why do you get the awesome sword?" Pence asked as he, Olette and Hayner took up their weapons.

"The sword choose me," said Hayner as he unsheathed the blade, "it came to me in a dream, and I found it in an abandoned chamber in the Underground Concourse."

"And I found my staff in a new room we found in The Old Mansion," said Olette as she polished her staff, "and you found your shields in another room there."

"I know," said Pence as he also shined-up his shields, "but why did we end up with these weapons exactly?"

"Who knows," said Hayner, "I'm guessing that all things happen for a reason, especially our meeting Sora and the others. We can't let them fight alone if we have the potential to fight along side them. I've got the feeling that they're going to need all the help they can get."

"And how are we going to get to them?" Pence asked.

"I'll tell you that as soon as your uncle finishes that starship he said he was going to build," said Hayner.

"Good luck convincing my dad to let us go into space," said Olette, "none of us know anything about the other worlds that Sora and Kairi told us about, let alone flying a starship. He's going to come up with a million and one excuses to keep us groundside, the biggest ones will be medical reasons."

"That's to be expected when you're the only daughter of the town's best doctor," said Pence, "and if we're going to be taking my uncles' ship, we're going to need someone who can actually fly it, someone who's been working with my uncle while building the thing, someone who knows the ship inside and out, and is willing to risk his life for the biggest adventure anyone in town has ever dreamed."

"You don't mean…?" Olette asked. But before anyone could say anything else, a small portal opened up in the ceiling of The Usual Spot and from that portal fell a girl in her early teens with shoulder-length, curly bronze hair, chocolate-brown eyes and pale skin. She was wearing a brown shirt with a blue jacket and blue jeans and brown boots. She had a short sword with a wooden handle belted to her waist.

The girl landed lightly on her feet right on top of the table, just as the portal closed, "that was weird," said the girl, her voice carrying a unique tone about it, almost like harmonic bells, "weird for my life even."

"Uh…" said a highly confused Hayner, while Pence also stood there perplexed. Their confusion was mixed with awe, for the girl was extremely pretty and left them speechless.

"Are you alright?" Olette asked the girl.

"Couldn't be better," said the girl as she gracefully hopped off of the table, "well, I guess things aren't alright, especially back home. That…thing, that portal I guess, it took me out of my world and into another. I'm sure my momma and daddy are nearly out of their minds about what happened, and Jacob is probably having kittens by now."

"You're acting like weird stuff happens to you all the time," said Olette.

At that the girl laughed brightly, her voice ringing like bells, "where I'm from, weird is the normal, especially at home."

"Um…who are you?" Pence asked hesitantly.

"And how did you fall into our world like that?" Hayner asked.

"It's rude to ask someone's name without giving yours first," said Olette to her two friends in an annoyed tone. She then introduced herself, Hayner and Pence to the girl.

"Nice to meet you all," said the girl as she shook everyone's hand, "I'm Renesmee, Renesmee Carlie Cullen, but everyone calls me Nessie."

"Nice to meet you, Nessie," said Olette, "but how did you get here?"

"It's a long story," said Nessie, "and I'm not supposed to talk about a lot of it, but believe me, you're better off not knowing all the details. One things for sure, I've got to find Jacob somehow. Don't ask me how I know, but I know he's somewhere in this…universe…and he's worried sick about me."

"Who's Jacob?" Hayner asked.

"A very, very dear friend of mine," said Nessie, "someone so close that, when the time is right, he and I will be together forever."

"Well, I guess we can help you find him," said Pence.

"That's great," said Nessie as she smiled brightly, showing perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth, "I think we're going to be really good friends."

"I think you're right," said Olette.

* * *

><p>"I may be an old man," said Happosai as he, Ansem the Wise and Young Wattori stood on top of the clock tower at the Station Plaza, "but my senses are as sharp as ever. Something big just happened here, in this world, something really big."<p>

"It's as L predicted would happen," said Young Wattori, "Renesmee has arrived. The girl of two worlds, who has been given visions of The Keyblade Wielders, has come. The time of Maleficent's final downfall is one step closer."

"This is the same child that Sora and his friends have been having visions of as well," said Ansem, "but why? Why did L subjugate them all to such cryptic dreams?"

"It's all part of L's plan," said Young Wattori, "a highly complex and eccentric plan, yes, but a plan nonetheless."

"I don't see what's so special about one kid dreaming about a bunch of other kids," said Happosai stubbornly, "while those kids are dreaming about her."

"You've seen how powerful the Keyblade Wielders can be," said Young Wattori, "and you've seen what The Heartless, Nobodies and other dark creatures can do. The young heroes are going to need all the help they can get, and Renesmee is a key factor in that help. She is the first of many such young ones whom have had visions sent by L, visions that will eventually guide them to stand with Sora and the others against the darkness."

"But what's so special about this girl?" Happosai asked.

"You're going to see for yourself soon," said Young Wattori, "but I'll tell you right now why Renesmee is special, one specific reason anyway. She's half vampire, and is therefore gifted with powers that make her all but invincible."

"Oh, she's half vampire," said Happosai in an understanding manner, "I guess that does make her special." he then did a double take, "say what?"

* * *

><p><em>…Somewhere in time and space…<em>

Sephiroth stood on the tallest mountain on a dark world orbiting a dying star. He knew that someone was coming, another soul of darkness like him, but different, much different.

The one winged angel didn't have to wait for long, for soon a dark corridor opened up. From it emerged a tall human with shockingly bright blond hair tied back with a black forehead band with a small gold heart in the middle. He wore a yellow jacket over a black shirt and yellow pants and black boots.

"You're earlier than I expected, Dio Brando" said Sephiroth to the man, "I take it that this is your original form?"

"More or less," said Dio Brando he smiled wickedly, "I've been through many transformations; the most recent being turned into a Heartless, only to change myself back to my last living body, and I much preferred it, as well as the powers that went with it."

He then said, "The World!" and vanished, only to instantaneously appear behind Sephiroth.

"Impressive," said Sephiroth as he turned around, "teleportation?"

"Similar enough," said Dio Brando, "it suits me well, unlike that oversized butter knife strapped to your waste."

"My blade serves me just fine," said Sephiroth as he touched the handle of his sword, "but enough about or respective abilities, we already know about them. There are so many other things that we have to talk about."

"Like that young fool who insanely wants to kill you so badly?" Dio asked.

"Cloud?" Sephiroth asked, "I am the darkness he so hates, yet can't live without. In the end, he will either destroy himself, or turn to that which he loathes. Either way, Cloud Strife will fall.

"But we've got other things that need discussing, such as Maleficent and her desires for creation."

"She thinks she can rule all," said Dio, "but she's already set herself up for her own downfall, while the others who foolishly cling to the light, those Keyblade Brats, they'll fall as well."

"And when they all exhaust themselves trying to destroy each other," said Sephiroth, "we, and others to come, will emerge the rightful masters of creation. It'll be a long a dirty task, manipulating all our enemies into destroying themselves, but it can be done."

"You may think of it as a chore," said Dio, "but for me, it's going to be fun." He smiled viciously, "oh yes, it will be fun!" He then adopted a serious manner, "so, who else are we meeting?"

"No one just yet," said Sephiroth, "but others will find us soon enough. I doubt that you know if this but your most recent enemies, the Keyblade Wielders, they just had an encounter with The Daleks."

"Daleks," said Dio, "yes, I've heard of those mutant murdering maniacs. Did they kill any of the brats?"

"Unfortunately no," said Sephiroth, "those children survived. They live to defy the darkness, a futile ambition if there ever was. Anyway, the brats defeated The Daleks, but those weren't the only ones to survive The Time War. There are others out there, including their creator, Davros."

"And you want to go looking for this Davros," said Dio, "alright, if you think he can be of use to us, then let's go find him."

"That we will," said Sephiroth. "Oh, and there is one more Villain whom I wish to find, Xehanort."

"Xehanort?" Dio asked, "Isn't he dead?"

"Yes and no," said Sephiroth, "both his Heartless and Nobody were destroyed by the same person; Sora, therefore, circumstances have conspired to bring him back. All we need to do is enlist his help, for I am sure that Xehanort has unfinished business in the realms."

"I'm sure he does," said Dio.

* * *

><p>Unknown to Sora, Maleficent, or anyone in the realms, good or bad, two star crossed lovers, each from a different parallel Earth, volunteered for what was sure to be a suicide mission. They knew that the chances of their returning home weren't good, but they knew that this had to be done, for if they didn't go, then the survival of all of existence would be that much more uncertain.<p>

Yet as these two heroes, who truly loved each other, despite being separated by time and space, had no idea that they were both going on this mission. Neither did they know that fate would conspire to bring them together again, them and their Daemons.

**The end of Volume 9.**

And that's it for my science fiction story. Eventually, if I can find videos of the second season, I'll do another Space Battleship Yamato crossover. I also hope that you liked that I brought in The Daleks as third party Villains. Eventually I will do a straightforward Doctor Who crossover, just as soon as I pick which Doctor and which companions to have Sora and the others meet.

And what about having Sephiroth teaming up with Dio Brando and looking for not only Davros, but also Xehanort? How's that for a new twist?

But that and so much more is for much later. For now, while our heroes don't know it, they're on their way to meeting two characters from The Twilight Saga, which will be half of the crossover material for my next volume, the other half will be His Dark Materials.

So, stay tuned for the next installment of my Beyond the Door to Light saga as Sora and the others finally learn the truth about their dreams.

Stay tuned for Volume 10: _Of Daemons and Vampires_.

See you then!


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